In 2015 I was working as a support worker; I was taking part in triathlons and pretty fit.  My dad had been suffering with liver disease for two years and I spent most of that time supporting him, despite living 70 miles away.

I woke on 30 September 2015 at my grandma’s in Bridlington, although I lived in Leeds.  I went to grab my phone – and my brain said my arm had moved, but it hadn’t!  I describe it in the talks I do in schools now suggesting it was like Harry Potter having a floppy arm after playing quidditch.  My dad was ill after a fall in Scarborough, and I was going to go back to Leeds as I was working in the afternoon.  I was getting ready to head off and my step-grandfather knew something was wrong, but he thought it was related to a hand injury from years earlier.  He later said that he knew something was wrong because I had dropped my wallet and a Yorkshire man never does that!

I got in my car and drove twenty miles and went to turn up the radio.  I touched it, but nothing happened.  It was like a ghost moving an object.  A distant cousin of mine was in the charts once with a song called ‘wasn’t expecting that’ – and I certainly wasn’t.  I stopped my car in a layby and tried to use my phone flag down cars (I did not realise there was farmhouse metres away in the trees).  I got back in the car and drove eleven miles down country roads in third gear.  By the time I got to the doctors’ surgery in Stamford Bridge my left arm was useless and when I got out of car, I realised my leg was too.  I had no feeling from the knee down.  I parked my car in the car park and walked in to see the GP.  I queued up and calmly said to the receptionist “I am not a patient here; I am driving through, but I think I have had a stroke.” she laughed and said, “Why do you think that?” I lifted my arm on the desk and said “This!” her face went white.

I saw the GP and he called for an ambulance.  The ambulance staff said it wasn’t a stroke, but just then a stroke a nurse was going off duty overheard us, and I was seen.  She said “lift your leg”.  I couldn’t, and when I tried to drink, the water came straight back out of my mouth.  Before I knew it, I was in a scanner and then flat on my back for 24 hours.  I spent most of that night willing my hand to open.  It was like a claw.  The first time it all hit me was when a friend came to the ward and while walking back up, I started to feel tired.  As soon as got on the bed I fell asleep for hours.  I was discharged after three days and went back home – and then the real effects hit.

The first few months were a blur.  I acted like the stroke did not have an impact and I had to just get on with things.  My dad was in hospital seventy miles away, and his health went downhill.  Six weeks after my stroke, my Dad was given two days to live.  He survived six weeks, right through Christmas and died on 18^th January 2016 – his birthday.

The effects of my stroke mean that I suffer with fatigue, sensory issues, my memory is all over the place and I sometimes have issues with my speech.  I may look OK, but every day the stroke affects me.  Everything needs more planning, new experiences can be exhausting and trying to get myself in the right energy mode can be hard work.  I started working for Different Strokes as the Regional Coordinator for the West Yorkshire region in 2016.  It was a new role, for one day a week – although I have tended to try to do a lot more than that!  I raise awareness of stroke to people aged eight to eighty.  I work with a wide range of organisations and help to promote our three groups in the county.

In 2016 I also became a swimming teacher and after years as an assistant teacher I spent the last two teaching at private swim school, and I have recently started working for Leeds City Council.  It can be funny at one leisure centre the Leeds group meets and I work there as swim teacher, but also in the past as a support worker.

I had to move to a new house due to the effects of the stroke and a friend moved in for few weeks and I’ve been living with him for three years.  He also has a fourteen-year-old son so we needed a larger house.  Jamie has been to a few events with me to do with Different Strokes and now he wants to be a neuro researcher.  I still work as a support worker a few hours a week.  I enjoy getting out on a tricycle and now even can ride a bicycle, which something I could not even do pre-stroke!

Last year I abseiled off the ArcelorMittal Orbit in London to raise money for Different Strokes.  I have done triathlons post-stroke and the last two years I have been doing track and field.  I was never good at sport even pre-stroke, but I have achieved a personal best on sprinting post-stroke, but am still nowhere near others’ standards.  I have worked to make track and field more attractive to everyone.  I even had the confidence to represent GB at the World Masters Athletics in shotput.  I do parkrun with the help of a guide.  The parkrun is great as it is inclusive, accepting people of all abilities and experience, and I have been doing it for ten years.   I became a track official but now only do it occasionally at events I really like, such as Masters events.

Right after my stroke I used the Different Strokes Facebook group for support  and the Different Strokes Facebook page for information – and I still do – I always seem to learn, even now.  It helps me to learn about other peoples’ experiences.  In the early days I called the DS Information line and found it invaluable to talk with people who understand.

Looking to the future, I hope to do my triathlon and athletics coaching qualifications.  I also want to get back to triathlon next year.  I have goals, but I don’t want to rush- especially with my memories.  I have decided to go with the desires of my present self and not my old self.  If you broke your arm, you learn to adapt, but you can rest… it is harder to do that with the brain…every single thing you feel or do is central around the brain.  The balance I’ve found is to keep it active, but not to exhaust it.