About me:

In the early hours of 20th March 2021, I suffered a sudden and unexplained stroke. I tried to get out of bed to take my turn on the night shift with our baby daughter and I couldn’t. The room started spinning, I lost control of my limbs, I had a splitting headache and I realised I couldn’t swallow. Somehow, I managed to get Pete’s attention - he was downstairs with the baby, while our 2 year old slept peacefully in her room - and he was able to call both an ambulance and my parents. I was taken to Broomfield Hospital, where I was quickly admitted to the Stroke Ward despite the paramedic’s repeated assurance that there was no way I’d had a stroke because I was ‘so young.’ Scans revealed that I’d had a vertebral artery dissection - basically the severing of a major blood vessel that is more commonly associated with a car accident or a bad rugby tackle. Only about 2% of strokes happen this way and we still don’t know what caused it in my case. 

I spent a total of 6 weeks in hospital, first at Broomfield and then in the rehab unit at St Peter’s. Pete was thrown into the deep-end as the primary carer to two very young children and had to give up his job. During my recovery he has become a de facto single parent and we have relied heavily on our families, and my mum in particular, for all kinds of support. 

To begin with, my progress in recovery was rapid. My swallow started to come back in about 3 days (I closed my eyes and thought of the suffragettes while the nurses inserted my feeding tube) and I went from wheelchair, to zimmer frame, to walking stick within a fortnight. My double vision resolved within a couple of months and I gradually regained the use of my left side. 

Progress since then has been very slow and not always linear. My main ongoing difficulties are constant dizziness, overwhelming fatigue and left sided weakness. It breaks my heart that I am not yet able to care for my children independently - or even spend as much time with them as I would like - but, with the support of my incredible family, I am continuing to work on my recovery every day. 

Different Strokes has enabled me to talk to other younger stroke survivors via their Facebook group and even inspired me to make my own picture book to explain the situation to our children. I will be walking a mile every day in March (which might not sound very much but will be a big challenge for me!) in support of the charity.

About Different Strokes:

Every year 100,000 people have a stroke and a quarter of these people are under the age of 65. That's 25,000 younger people whose lives are changed in an instant. Stroke is also the single biggest cause of disability in the UK, but it's not always the visible disabilities that stroke survivors have to contend with, debilitating fatigue, cognitive problems and personality changes can also be a lifelong challenge, preventing them from returning to work or bringing up a young family. Different Strokes empowers younger survivors to reclaim their lives through active peer support, information and exercise. Different Strokes also support the wider family to get through challenging times with compassion and understanding. This is why I am taking on the 'March On' step challenge to raise vital funds to support the work of Different Strokes.