Chris’s Story - Both Haemorrhagic and Ischaemic Stroke at 57

My name is Chris and I was 57 when I had my stroke, in February 2024 whilst at work at Leeds Bradford Airport. I live in Eccleshill Bradford. Life before my stroke was OK. I played a lot of golf and kept myself active with walks. In fact, two days before my stroke I even played a game of golf and had no health issues at all.

The lead up to my stroke was just like any other normal days. I had played golf, gone shopping and done the normal things any man might do and had no prior health warnings.

According to my notes from the first aider at work and the duty manager, I collapsed whilst in a meeting and slumped in my chair. I blacked out and was out unconscious for around six to-seven minutes. A first aider was called and the duty manager was too, as the duty manager was an ex-paramedic. She suspected that I was having a stroke and called 999.

Whatever she said on the phone worked as when I came round and my vision eventually returned, and I saw two air ambulance staff with me. They wired me up to a heart machine and did tests on me, whilst reading with them from notes they’d made. It was quickly presumed that I’d had a stroke, and I was taken to Leeds General Hospital.

This made me feel very scared as I had no idea how my body was going to be affected, and whether I would be able to return to doing the things that I loved doing, like sports.

Once I had arrived at the hospital I was taken straight into resus and sent for a CT scan, which showed that not only had I had a bleed on the brain, but there was a blood clot that needed to be removed too! The Stroke Consultant rang my partner asked her if they could operate on me by giving me the drugs via my arm, which eventually she said yes to after answering a few questions about me. Apparently there is a 4hr 30min window that the stroke team talk about after when you have had a stroke, and by this time I was 4hr 15min in!

My recovery in hospital was good, but frightening as I had physio each day but scary as I was unable to walk properly. It was the whole of my right side that had been affected. Each day the stroke team came to see me and also stayed to answer questions from my partner and children, who had travelled to see me.

Since leaving hospital the recovery has not been so good as I felt like I’d become a number in the system and I ended up waiting for a letter to be seen by the hospital physio team This had an impact on my mental health.

The stroke has affected me hugely as nearly a year on I’m still not back at work, so financially it’s hard for me and my partner. I have not managed to play any golf at all yet. Even though I’m not back walking, the thought of walking 18 holes is alarming as my fatigue is poor too. I have managed to swing my clubs on the driving range and I hope and aim to be playing golf at some point in 2025.

The one thing that I would like to see change is that when you are sent home from hospital that your physio kicks in straight away, rather than having to wait weeks and weeks to be contacted. My experience is that the effect this has on your mental health is alarming.

I came across Different Strokes from a meeting with my stroke nurse as I mentioned that I felt there was no help for stroke survivors to share stories and to get feedback from others. Since joining the Different Strokes community I have joined numerous online meetings and have learned a wealth of knowledge from other survivors.

The main goals for me now are to continue my monthly physio at the hospital and also the tasks that the hospital has given me to do at home; like build my strength back up in my right arm and leg (the physio team say it may never fully go back to what it was before ), get my right side glutes area muscle to work properly and to get my right hip working. Then my main goal is to get back out on the golf course and play to the high standard that I was prior to my stroke. Whether that is achievable or not will be down to me and my physio team, who have said if they can get the brain to direct its messages to my body another way then there is no reason why my golfing ability might not return to what it was previously. If not then I will still be able to play golf, but maybe not to the high standard that I did before.

My advice to anyone who has had a stroke is that there is help there. Different Strokes has helped me enormously; speaking and listening to likeminded people, getting advice and tips about moving forward, my big tip is look up Different Strokes and use their services, in particular joining their online groups.

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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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