In 2009, aged 17, I suffered a stroke. I had spent a weekend with a horrendous headache and unable to eat or drink due to sickness before waking up with weakness down my right hand side. My mum called an ambulance and I was taken to A&E (by an ambulance crew who assumed I had a migraine) where I was quizzed about drug use and felt dismissed and ignored. I was eventually admitted to an assessment ward where I began to suffer with tonic-clonic seizures. I was then blue-lighted to another hospital where I ultimately spent 2 weeks as an inpatient before being discharged. 

This years London Marathon will take place exactly 10 years, 1 decade, (to the day) since I was discharged from hospital following my stroke and therefore will be extremely poignant to me as my first ever marathon.

Following my stroke, I returned to complete my A-level studies before going to university to study nursing. In 2016 I graduated and became a registered adult nurse, since which I have worked on my local stroke unit. I now work as an Acute Stroke Response Nurse assessing people who present with symptoms suggestive of stroke.

I am passionate about the ongoing improvement of stroke care in the UK and increased recognition of stroke in younger people. I have therefore set myself an ambitious fundraising target of £5000! 

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