In October 2020, Alison, one of our long-serving and valued employees, who has worked in our sales team, and admin team before that for eighteen years, suffered a catastrophic stroke. This was devastating for Alison, her family and friends, and her wider family here at Shufflebottom. Her work colleagues and customers were naturally shocked and saddened and have been closely monitoring her progress and receiving regular updates from her husband Matthew and her daughters, Amber and Sophie.

Alison suffered an Ischaemic Stroke caused by a clot on the right hand side of the brain which cut off blood supply and caused swelling and pressure on the skull. This resulted in an emergency craniotomy at University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, to remove part of the skull to relieve pressure, and necessitated Alison being put in an induced coma. Following this, she was transferred to Neath and Port Talbot Hospital where she is receiving physical therapy as she has been left with weakness on the left hand side of her body. She is now waiting for more surgery – a cranioplasty – where a titanium plate will replace the part of her skull that was removed.