Mike’s Story – Haemorrhagic Stroke at 42
- Greg Hollingworth
I’m Mike. I had a haemorrhagic stroke in September 2025, aged 42
It was apple season, so being a West Country lad I was out one afternoon with some friends making cider; scratting and pressing the apples, and having a couple of drinks. After that all I know of what happened between then and waking up from a coma a few weeks later is what my wife Ellie and Mum have told me. Apparently, I woke up on the sofa at my friend’s house the next morning with a severe pain in my head. I got up and went home and took my four year old Alanah to nursery.
Ellie tells me that when I got home I said I wasn’t feeling well and my head hurt so I went back to bed and was in bed until the next day. When I woke up on Wednesday the 10th September my speech was very garbled, my head was still banging and Ellie couldn’t keep me awake. Ellie and my Mum took me to the hospital in Barnstaple, where they diagnosed a stroke and sent me off to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
The scans there showed I had a bleed on my brain- a subdural haemorrhagic stroke. They monitored me for a week but my condition deteriorated and I lost my speech again so they did another scan. That showed the bleed had got bigger so they rushed me to the operating theatre for emergency brain surgery to relieve the pressure. They made a big incision along the top of my skull so they could get to my brain to try and stop the bleeding and they fitted two pressure gauges on my head.
After surgery the doctor’s plan had been to keep me in an induced coma overnight and wake me up the next day. But the swelling on my brain got worse and I didn’t respond to their efforts to wake me up. They told Ellie they didn’t know if I’d survive nor what I’d be like if I did survive.
My time in hospital
I was in a coma for thirteen days while the pressure and swelling settled down. Coming out of the coma was odd to say the least. I remember feeling them taking the ventilator tubes out but as I came to I had no memory of anything that had happened since before my stroke. I couldn’t even remember our baby Morgan being born a few weeks earlier. As well as a stroke somehow, I had frontal lobe damage, perhaps from falling over. Frontal lobe damage affects short term memory, which is why I couldn’t reliably remember Morgan but I remembered my older kids Alanah and Evie.
I also got a chest infection with delirium, a common consequence of being in a coma and I had a pulmonary embolism, so for a week or two it was a bumpy ride.
The doctors told me I may not walk again- my left leg and left arm were both very weak and I had only a little speech. Once I could talk properly my first question was
“How do I get out of here?”
I wanted to get out of Plymouth and get back to Barnstaple and then home to my family. The doctors said there was no chance I would get home before Christmas, but they showed me a list of tasks I had to complete to be released. That was the motivation and direction I needed.
Learning to manage again after my stroke
I pushed myself hard to engage with all the rehab exercises. I had to draw noughts and crosses grids, hold my fingers together on my left hand, walk round the ward to the reception desk and back, make a cup of tea – that kind of thing. Even things like using my phone (I had to re learn how to unlock it) and how to use a touchscreen, etc. When your brain gets damaged you have to build new connections. Everything I was doing felt like it was brand new.
Within two or three weeks of coming out of a coma I had pushed and pushed until I completed the list and they sent me to my local hospital in Barnstaple. I continued to make really good progress there so they let me go home after five days.
I worked with an occupational therapist and a physio at home to continue building my strength and skills . One of my main physical goals was to be able to hold Morgan again- I had lost so much muscle mass that I couldn’t even lift him up.
One of the last things I had to do before my occupational therapist signed me off was to cook her a meal – I made cottage pie with all the trimmings, one of my specialities.
I’m a stubborn git. I don’t like to be beaten by things like this. I’ve been through a lot in my life – I’ve had three heart operations because I was born with a very rare condition where you have an extra chamber in your heart. The doctors say my stroke had nothing to do with that though.
In January I started work again. I’m a self-employed carpenter, fitting kitchens and flooring. I just did a few bits and pieces to start with but I’ve been back working full time since the middle of February.
My support after my stroke
I’m also the proud chairman of my local Round Table in Barnstaple. I’ve been part of it since I was 25 and it’s a massive part of my life. Round Table people were immense after my stroke, visiting me in hospital and helping my family out while I was in hospital. Tablers throughout the UK and the world, and friends and family, raised over £20,000 through GoFundMe to help me and Ellie out during my stroke recovery.
Ellie was on maternity leave after Morgan’s birth in August, and I’m self-employed so that support has been a lifeline for us.
When I got out of hospital, my first social occasion was a dinner to mark 75th Charter of Barnstaple Round Table. I’d only been out of hospital three days so I didn’t do the whole thing but I made a little speech and thanked everyone for their incredible support. Getting back to Round Table has been part of my stroke rehab. I pressed the big red button to launch the fireworks display and I did eight evenings walking with our Santa Sleigh in December, building up the distance each day until I could walk the full six or seven miles. They’re my gang, many of them lads I’ve known since I was a teenager, I feel incredibly grateful that I’m well enough to be back among them.
Making the most of life After stroke
I also love my motorbikes, I’ve been riding and racing them since I was a teenager and go over to the Isle of Man TT most years . At the minute I’m waiting to get my driving licence back, so I can get back out in my van and back on my Honda VT600 Shadow . I have been known to do a few stunts, jumping bikes 30 foot in the air, but for now I’ll keep my feet and wheels firmly on the ground!
When I heard what had happened and that they didn’t think I’d recover and I was going to be in rehab and stuck for a long time, it really made me fight. Beating this for my family meant everything to me. I know I’ll never be the same as I was before, I know I’ll battle with this forever but I have beaten a lot of it, with help from my family and friends and Round Table.
My main message to other stroke survivors is to say how hard you have to focus without tiring yourself out. To overcome something that totally wiped me out and come this far has made me proud and you should be proud of yourself too.
Your donation helps others like Mike on their journeys
There are 100,000 strokes in the UK each year with 1 in 4 happening to somebody of working age or younger. Different Strokes aims to promote independent stroke recovery and help these younger stroke survivors reclaim their lives.
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