On the 23rd April, I will be running the London Marathon having successfully won the ballot place for my running club Gator AC.

I have set up a justgiving page with 100% of the donations going to the Sneyd Ward at the Haywood Hospital, Stoke on Trent. Not only to raise money, but to also raise awareness of the severity of strokes (see my story below). Please spread the word so that I can raise as much money as possible!

On the 31st August 2022 my dads partner Sara, 44 started her day as normal by getting up and going to work, albeit with a minor headache, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

At around mid afternoon Sara stood up and collapsed to the floor. One of her work colleagues was in close proximity and called 999 where luckily an ambulance was close by and rushed her to Royal Stoke.

Initial scans showed that Sara had a blood clot on her brain which subsequently caused her to have a stroke. Pioneering surgery removed the clot and over the following days Sara started to become stable, until becoming unresponsive on day 5 where she was rushed in for a CT scan.

The scan showed that due to the bleed on Sara’s brain, her brain had swelled significantly and was starting to compress against her skull. This subsequently resulted in emergency craniotomy surgery being performed to remove part of her skull to reduce the pressure and to allow the brain to ‘breath’.

It took Sara a few weeks to become stable after this operation, where she was then transferred to the Sneyd Ward at Haywood Hospital. Local wards like this rely heavily on donations to assist their patients.

After 4 months split between Royal Stoke and the Haywood, Sara returned home on the 16th December, to continue with her rehabilitation with support of carers, physios and therapists etc.

This would not have been possible without the excellent care she has received in both Royal Stoke (Ward 127) and Sneyd Ward.

The Sneyd in particular is in need of additional funding to enable them to buy more enhanced equipment to improve patient care, rehabilitation etc. focused on strokes.

Any donations would be greatly appreciated by both myself and the Sneyd ward.