Ashley Macrae
Ashley's page
Fundraising for Stroke Association
Story
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I’m taking part in a 5k run to raise awareness that it’s not only older people who can have a stroke it happens to all ages. It’s definitely more common in older people but it does happen to younger people and I had no clue before it happened to me. If you see any symptoms of a droopy face arm/leg weakness in the one side of the body it’s so important to get help fast
I was 22 last year when I had a stroke in Bangkok, I had all the symptoms - dropped face my speech was slurred and i couldn’t use my whole left side it was terrifying, I’m so lucky I wasn’t alone and I got to a medical centre so quickly. As soon as I seen a doctor and he said he thought i could be having a stroke I couldn’t believe it I thought I had been spiked or something no way I could have a stroke I was only 22 and was pretty healthy!!??? An ambulance was called and took me to hospital straight away and got a MRI scan it showed bleeding in the brain so that confirmed it was a stroke I just couldn’t believe it at first, still can’t believe it now to be honest. After I had the scan I started to get feeling back in my left side and I could speak properly again I was so so lucky I managed to have a full recovery but unfortunately not everyone is as fortunate as me, maybe it was because I was only 22 I don’t know but someone was looking over me that day!
I know how it feels to loose function of my left hand side only for about an hour, I can’t imagine how it feels for those who don’t get a full recovery! After 4 nights in hospital and loads of tests they found out I had a stroke because I was traveling from Cambodia to Bangkok on a night bus that took over 14 hours I ended up getting a blood clot in my leg and it travelled up my body to my brain, the reason this happened was because I had a pfo which is a small hole in my heart, its quite common around 1 in 5 people have this but having the mix of the blood clot in my leg and the pfo caused a stroke. They just confirmed it as ‘unlucky’ and they don’t know why it happened. The pfo was how the blood clot managed to travel to my brain, I’ve recently just had an operation to close the hole in my heart and I’ve made full recovery. I have to take blood thinning tablets for the rest of my life but apart from that you would never know anything ever happened to me
I never even knew what a stroke meant when they first told me. It was hard to understand when I was already in shock and also the English wasn’t that great in the hospitals in Bangkok. A stroke is when the blood supply to your brain is interrupted or reduced. This deprives your brain of oxygen and nutrients, which can cause your brain cells to die. This causes the sudden loss of speech, weakness, or paralysis of one side of the body.
Really the two things I would like to get out of doing this 5k for this charity is to make people aware it can happen to young people too and we need to look after ourselves do exercise, eat healthy, stop smoking, walk around if your on a long journey to save blood clots from happening and know the signs of a stroke and get help fast, time can literally be the reason someone who has a stroke lives or dies.
The money we raise for this charity goes to helping stroke survivors who haven’t had a full recovery who may need help to speak, read or write again. And even just to talk about what happened to them as it really does traumatise you Its definitely the scariest thing that ever happened to me. After a stroke around one in three people don’t have a full recovery and need this help.
Thank you so much for reading my story and to anyone to has donated I appreciate it so much! I feel so lucky to have had a full recovery and to have such lovely friends and family around me who helped me get through this! There’s about 15 of my friends/family who are doing the run too so a donation to any of us would be amazing xxx
I’m taking part in a 5k run to raise awareness that it’s not only older people who can have a stroke it happens to all ages. It’s definitely more common in older people but it does happen to younger people and I had no clue before it happened to me. If you see any symptoms of a droopy face arm/leg weakness in the one side of the body it’s so important to get help fast
I was 22 last year when I had a stroke in Bangkok, I had all the symptoms - dropped face my speech was slurred and i couldn’t use my whole left side it was terrifying, I’m so lucky I wasn’t alone and I got to a medical centre so quickly. As soon as I seen a doctor and he said he thought i could be having a stroke I couldn’t believe it I thought I had been spiked or something no way I could have a stroke I was only 22 and was pretty healthy!!??? An ambulance was called and took me to hospital straight away and got a MRI scan it showed bleeding in the brain so that confirmed it was a stroke I just couldn’t believe it at first, still can’t believe it now to be honest. After I had the scan I started to get feeling back in my left side and I could speak properly again I was so so lucky I managed to have a full recovery but unfortunately not everyone is as fortunate as me, maybe it was because I was only 22 I don’t know but someone was looking over me that day!
I know how it feels to loose function of my left hand side only for about an hour, I can’t imagine how it feels for those who don’t get a full recovery! After 4 nights in hospital and loads of tests they found out I had a stroke because I was traveling from Cambodia to Bangkok on a night bus that took over 14 hours I ended up getting a blood clot in my leg and it travelled up my body to my brain, the reason this happened was because I had a pfo which is a small hole in my heart, its quite common around 1 in 5 people have this but having the mix of the blood clot in my leg and the pfo caused a stroke. They just confirmed it as ‘unlucky’ and they don’t know why it happened. The pfo was how the blood clot managed to travel to my brain, I’ve recently just had an operation to close the hole in my heart and I’ve made full recovery. I have to take blood thinning tablets for the rest of my life but apart from that you would never know anything ever happened to me
I never even knew what a stroke meant when they first told me. It was hard to understand when I was already in shock and also the English wasn’t that great in the hospitals in Bangkok. A stroke is when the blood supply to your brain is interrupted or reduced. This deprives your brain of oxygen and nutrients, which can cause your brain cells to die. This causes the sudden loss of speech, weakness, or paralysis of one side of the body.
Really the two things I would like to get out of doing this 5k for this charity is to make people aware it can happen to young people too and we need to look after ourselves do exercise, eat healthy, stop smoking, walk around if your on a long journey to save blood clots from happening and know the signs of a stroke and get help fast, time can literally be the reason someone who has a stroke lives or dies.
The money we raise for this charity goes to helping stroke survivors who haven’t had a full recovery who may need help to speak, read or write again. And even just to talk about what happened to them as it really does traumatise you Its definitely the scariest thing that ever happened to me. After a stroke around one in three people don’t have a full recovery and need this help.
Thank you so much for reading my story and to anyone to has donated I appreciate it so much! I feel so lucky to have had a full recovery and to have such lovely friends and family around me who helped me get through this! There’s about 15 of my friends/family who are doing the run too so a donation to any of us would be amazing xxx