16th May 2023 was just a normal Tuesday.....

Mind you - I'd had a rotten night's sleep the previous night .... a pal was coming over to the house in the morning to help me build a pergola my wife and I had purchased for the back garden.

After lifting the boxes out from the hall, where they'd been stacked up for a few days after being delivered, we got them all out to the back garden and started assembling the unit...

It only took an hour or so, and my pal Colin helped get the feet secured into the patio using the correct chunky fixings.

Job done. i could maybe grab a wee afternoon nap, as i was really feeling shattered.

I wasn't feeling right though.....something beyond tiredness...

lying in bed half drifting off my mobile phone rang - it was my youngest daughter, wondering where i am (she was in the living room directly beneath my bedroom). I answered it on speaker phone and said "I'm in bed Sophie - I'm trying to get a sleep"

thing was - i must not have answered clearly. No - I totally slurred that line (although I was still unaware of the scale of what was happening)

I got up to visit the bathroom and my left side was not working - I fell out of the bed.

Sophie then came upstairs to find out what the noise had been, to find me lying on the floor beside my bed, with a strange feeling of something on my left "being missing"

I then heard her calling my wife, who was coming home from a conference in Dundee and the next call I heard her make was to 999.

"Dad - smile at me"

I gave her a big cheesey!

"No - his smile is different."

(What? My smile is my smile isn't it? help me get up off the floor! why don't i have a "left side" any more? Have i had a pee accident?)

Having a stroke is a catastrophic incident.

After 2 young paramedics got me up and into one of they wheel chairs with small wheels on 2 rotating triangles ( to get people safely downstairs)

I was rushed to University Hospital Wishaw - where the longest battle of my life started. It took a few weeks before I learned to stand up again - and then walking short distances in the corridors - with a quad stick. Wow that really knocks seven bells out of you....

But here i am now over 2 years from the date of my stroke - preparing to attempt the 5 miles of the Edinburgh KiltWalk "wee wander on Sunday 14th September 2025 - withe some of my oldest friends

In they two years a heck of a lot has happened:

1) I've retired - or rather - the stroke retired me, probably about 10 years before I'd have liked to...

2) I've gone through various rehab programs with the NHS ( and others)

3) I've started volunteering in the CHSS shop on Wishaw Main Street.

4) I also have a small, part -time job with a solicitor's firm - providing some receptionist/telephone maternity cover.

One of the rehab programs I joined was the 8 week duration co-creation lab at Strathclyde University. This was a tremendous rehab opportunity - which i was delighted to find out when i was attending have a major part of their funding provided by CHSS. They got me on a treadmill (with an overhead safety harness!) and got me up to 4 mph - and not holding on tp the safety rail!

My volunteering slot at the local CHSS shop has also introduced me to some other stroke patients.

Discussing matters and sharing with others who have been on a similar journey has been a really helpful experience.

Raising money for people who have been affected by stroke seems to be the best thing I could do now - so please help me and my friends, who are walking with me along the route - if you can.