On father’s day 2023 at the age of 43, Lee, a father of three, had a stroke and although the stroke operation went well, he then had a massive brain bleed at which point the left side of his skull was completely removed to release the pressure on his brain.

On life support and in a coma he was given just 24 to 48 hours to live.

Defying all the odds set against him, Lee fought through and miraculously survived.

Although the prognosis was grim and severe brain damage was a possible factor.

When Lee came out of the coma, it was clear that he understood and was aware of what was going on around him.

Completely paralysed down his right side and unable to speak he worked continuously in hospital over several months to get back to some kind of normality.

First learning how to swallow so he could eat and drink, he then had to learn how to balance so he could be moved in and out of bed or a wheelchair without a hoist.

Lee then went on to surprise even the professionals by learning how to walk.

At first he was aided by someone else, eventually taking a few steps on his own. A slow process but Lee never gave in.

Once he had taken those first few steps unaided, the wheelchair was no longer an option for him, his goal was to live without it.

When he was finally discharged from hospital Lee continued to work towards walking unaided then, out of the blue, Lee suffered a seizure and went into cardiac arrest.

With life saving C.P.R Our Warrior defied the odds for a second time.

Although he still does not have the use of his right arm, he can now walk and, with the dedicated and devoted support of his Fiancé Kelly, Lee is attending the gym on a daily basis and striving for his own independence.

However, although Lee is moving forward and completely understands everything, he is now suffering with Aphasia and Apraxia which means he is still non verbal.

It has been 18 months since Kelly, his children, family or friends have been able to have a conversation with Lee which is absolutely heart breaking.

It’s also extremely frustrating for Lee when he is trying to communicate.

Both Aphasia and Apraxia are speech disorders and both can result from brain injury most often to areas in the left side of the brain. However, Apraxia is different from Aphasia. Apraxia is not impairment of language capabilities but rather of the motor aspects of speech production. Basically, even if the words are there in the brain, the mouth cannot position itself correctly to produce the words and the only word that Lee can say is ‘ONE’

After 18 months of being repeatedly let down by the system with his one hour a week Speech Therapy, Lee is now running out of time and as a family we are now trying to raise funds for Private Speech Therapy to help give Lee his voice.

It has been advised that Lee would need at least 3 sessions a week, which is extremely costly and not available on the NHS.

We truly believe that if he were to be given the chance, with his shear tenacity and strength of character Lee will eventually speak again.

A moment we are all waiting for in hope and anticipation.

Lee has already proved himself to be an absolutely amazing person with a determination second to none.

An inspiration to us all, he truly is our ‘ONE WARRIOR’

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Lees story.