My wife Sue, and two sons, Alexander and Thomas, were thrilled that I was at last going to take life easier. Apart from my Non Exec role, I had no intention of doing anything for six months, bar enjoy the summer, tend my South Buckinghamshire garden and visit our health club more (Sue and I practice yoga and pilates and we swim, walk and use the gym each week). However, a chance meeting with an old friend who owns a Fine Art gallery and Restoration business near Windsor, resulted in me agreeing to work a couple of days a week at the gallery looking after clients and assisting with general management duties. I literally started the first week of April, and whilst a little daunting to begin with, I was loving it, in particular, the small team of highly skilled people I was working with.

At 2.00pm Wednesday 24th May, the gallery owner, Lead Restorer and I had just sat down for a review meeting. We were ten minutes into the meeting when “it” happened. My colleagues had just started talking through some ideas on how we could consider the gallery space, when from nowhere I could feel a sensation move from my upper back and creep up into my head; resulting in a strange, ‘mushy’, pulsing headache – I could feel pressure. Next, came my eyes and the most strange experience of both my eyes dancing around and having what felt like dancing spasms. They say things come in threes and what came next for me was a feeling in my left leg as if someone heavy was sitting on my thigh. All three symptoms dispersed at the same time, which I’d say was around a minute.

Call it bodily instinct, but as soon as the mushy headache started I knew something was not right. The eyes kicking in just heightened this and I knew at that point I needed to keep calm and to deep breathe – in and out through my nose, just one of many things we’ve learned through yoga. I’m totally convinced this helped me. At first my two colleagues were oblivious to my situation, but then, at the same time, they sensed something was untoward. I requested some water and asked if we could pause the meeting as I didn’t feel right and that I wanted some fresh air. I stood up and although shaky, I was able, with support from my colleagues, to walk out of the gallery and over to the church yard opposite where we sat on a bench and called my wife. Although she’s not a medical professional, Sue does work for a surgeon and has a good knowledge of certain medical matters.

Thankfully, Sue was able to collect me and within forty minutes I was in A&E at my local hospital in Slough. Multiple tests followed, and the possibility of a TIA or stroke was mentioned, but I was told that I would require an MRI scan to confirm if it was a stroke, but this could only be done early the following morning, which meant an overnight stay. I really don’t remember much at all at what happened apart from I knew that I had lost some peripheral vision in my left eye/lower left quadrant and also the feeling of disorientation and hearing the words from the acting consultant that afternoon saying that I had experienced a stroke, and that the clot was the reason for the sight loss. On leaving the hospital I was fully briefed on the my medication, informed of further tests and told I could not drive for a month. Let’s be honest, stroke in medical terms, is a worrying word and one that we’d rather not be on the receiving end of, but at least my family and I knew what had happened to me.

This was “Day One” and what was to be the start of my recovery journey. It was a tough and emotional start for me. I had little energy, memory struggled at times, and for at least a month had intermittent sensations in my eyes, one being the rapid flashing of little red, green and blue “Christmas Tree” type lights, another being strange “Henna” type patterns, in “Henna” colours. Although difficult to state accurately, I knew that I had gained some peripheral vision back. Having read up on the condition I believe the progress with my eyesight may have been attributed to the lights and patterns I was seeing.