Mia Elise Bruce was born on 15th May 2000, and, as with many little girls, she loved to dance. In fact she loved anything active. Growing up she represented the District and County in 800m & 1500m and trained 2 nights a week with Windsor, Slough & Eton Athletics Club.

In the end though dancing took priority. Having been awarded a place, with part scholarship, at The London Dance College, Mia said goodbye, after 12 years to the Wentworth School of Dance. A new chapter. Her mum posted the attached video of Mia rehearsing on Monday 21st January 2019

The next day Mia set off on her usual journey into College.

At 10.20am Tammy received a phone call that would rock her world.

A woman introduced herself as a paramedic and explained that Mia was in their ambulance having collapsed at college… she had regained consciousness, but she is slurring her words and has a tingling feeling down her right hand side. They were taking her to Kings College Hospital.

Tammy set off straight away, believing that maybe Mia was exhausted…

With 20 minutes still left on her journey a second call came through. This time a ladies voice said “I am the head of the stroke unit, and I am sorry to have to tell you that Mia has had a stroke and we are going to have to take her straight to theatre. As she can’t communicate with us we need your permission. We need to take her right now!”

It was discovered that Mia had two blood clots on her brain, the one towards the lower part of her brain was successfully removed, but the second was situated at the top of her brain and it was deemed too risky to remove it.

The next 24/48 hours were going to be critical.

The relief of seeing Mia in recovery was overwhelming, however it became very apparent that her brain and body had been through a traumatic event. She had no movement down her right side, very little speech and her memory was so severely affected that she was unaware of her name, where she was, the month…and she thought the year was 1966.

Drs carried out a barrage of tests over the next 24 hours, whilst all family and friends could do were wait, and be positive.

Mia soon began to show us the determined young lady we know.

By Tuesday evening, she was able to eat and drink, move her right arm and leg…and part of her memory had come back.

Incredibly, to the delight and astonishment of all the medical professionals and family, by Wednesday morning Mia was able to sit up, and then get to her feet.

They spent the day looking through photographs to help her memory, and she was able to see her brother Luca.

From a brain scan Drs were able to identify that part of the brain had suffered some damage, but were unable to say which physical or psychological commands this may affect, and to what degree. They were able to confirm some positive news that the bleed had stopped, and the second clot had broken down.

Thursday brought more tests, Mia amazingly managed to get every question right, bar one, on the memory test. ECG, blood tests… everyone wanted answers to why this had happened, so that they could prevent it from happening again.

Tammy and Mia also got to meet the Surgeon who helped to save Mia’s life. He praised the A&E team for making such a quick decision to get Mia to surgery, and he also shared with them that at the point of the surgery his prognosis was that Mia would likely be in a Wheelchair for the rest of her life, with a severe amount of brain damage. They are so very grateful.

Amazingly Mia was allowed to come home on the Friday, with medication, support from the hospital, and her loving family.

Now comes the hard part…. Getting this gorgeous young lady back.

70% of recovery occurs in the first 12 months, and although Mia is getting some support from the NHS, we don’t know how long this will last; they can only do so much.

She has pushed herself in every physio, speech & language session.

She wants to get back to her dancing, her job, driving….and being 18!

We hope to find out more answers at her next hospital appointment.

Mia has got an uphill battle, both physically and emotionally, and we are asking for help.

Speech and Language sessions, physio, occupational therapy, counseling. Anything she needs to recover from this event, as quickly, and as completely as she can.

Help to get this courageous young lady back to being Mia.

Thank you very much for reading Mia’s Story.

Mia, and her family, would like to thank everyone who made the right decisions on that fateful day.

Any unused funds will be given to the Stroke Association to help someone else.