Tia’s Story – Ischaemic Stroke at 22
- Greg Hollingworth
I had just had a very busy weekend in August 2025 going to a music festival, drinking & staying up all night (a typical weekend for 22 year old me), and I was going to enjoy my bank holiday Monday by binge watching the whole of one of my favourite series with my best friend, before the season finale came out. That morning was normal, my friend and I were chatting away in my living room when I felt my face go numb. I sat and waited to see if the feeling in my face would come back, and when it didn’t, I thought:
“Oh god, what if I’m having a stroke? No, I’m too young, I can’t be!”
My best friend is a nurse, so I told her about my face, and she went through the F.A.S.T. checklist with me. I could still raise my arms, my face wasn’t droopy yet and I could still speak, so we didn’t think it was a stroke, but we weren’t sure what was happening. My sister came into the room a few minutes later and asked me to hold a DVD for her as her hands were full, I went to take it and that’s when we realised my right arm wasn’t working anymore.
Finding out I'd had a stroke
I felt my face drop and suddenly I couldn’t speak anymore, my friend got my parents and my mum called 999 and tried to calm me down, I was panicking so much that I wasn’t really listening to anyone, my mum thought at first I was experiencing Bell’s palsy, but as soon as she saw my arm wasn’t working she knew it was a stroke and let the dispatcher on the phone know.
The ambulance arrived within 10 minutes, and they agreed it was a stroke too, but wanted to video call with a medical consultant on their tablet to make sure, I then had to try and hold my arms in place in front of me for the consultant, which I couldn’t do, he confirmed I was having a stroke and said to “blue light her” (meaning turn on the alarm and the lights in the ambulance) and take me to the specialist neurology hospital in London.
When I got to the hospital, there was a large team was waiting for me, they took my blood and did an MRI scan instead of a CT, as they thought I was too young for a CT, and we discovered I had an ischaemic stroke, that had caused an infarction to my pre and postcentral gyrus – meaning it was dead and never going to work again (the dead part of my brain is about the size of a 50 pence piece!). The stroke has affected the speech part of my brain permanently.
By this point, I couldn’t remember how to speak, my arm still didn’t work, I forgot things like my name, birthday and couldn’t answer simple questions the nurses were asking me, so my mum had to fill in for me. I was crying on and off because no one could understand me or what had caused my stroke in the first place – I was young, healthy, with no obvious explanation.
Trying to find out why I had a stroke at such a young age
Everyone had different theories, but the doctors said they would investigate fully, using every test available to them to get an answer, but there was a high chance we might never find out the cause.
All I could think was, if I had caused this by drinking too much or being on the pill, I would never forgive myself as in my head that meant this could have easily been prevented, that it was ‘my fault’.
I was kept in the hospital for four days and the doctors and nurses were amazing! They never dumbed anything down when speaking to me or only spoke to me if a parent was present – they knew I was cognitive and could understand, just that I struggled to get my words out to reply to them.
Miraculously, the next morning after my stroke, I gained enough strength back in my arm that I could lift light objects, and I could eventually say a few words, although I had to really strain myself to do it and the words came out slurred, severely mispronounced, and sometimes I forgot what I was trying to say entirely. I could only smile or move the right side of my face if someone made me laugh, but not voluntarily.
During my stay I made my right arm do everything. I was so sure I could get it working back to 100% if I just kept using it, and I would say the alphabet to myself at night to try and remember speech faster – I was impatient and wanted to snap back into my old self again as soon as possible.
I think it only really hit me fully that I had a stroke when I got home, and even then I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to take my medication, because it meant I was relying on a blood thinner tablet for the rest of my life to keep me healthy – it didn’t matter if I tried to keep myself healthy through exercise or diet, I still needed to take the medication, and for a 22-year-old that’s not something I could get my head round very easily – that was for old people! Not me! I can keep myself healthy!
“Why me? Why did this have to happen to me? It’s not fair!”
I was so angry I couldn’t speak, that I was tired all the time, that I couldn’t move my face or smile properly – my arm got better so fast (it was fully functional again by this point) why wasn’t my speech or face better yet? I was really upset about it and had the same cry of
“Why me? Why did this have to happen to me? It’s not fair!”
almost everyday.
The doctors found out a few months after my stroke that I had a hole in my heart (called a patent foramen ovale, or PFO), and also ‘sticky blood’ meaning my blood clots much more than the average adult, both of which the doctors suspected caused my stroke – not the pill or alcohol. To say I was relieved to find that out is an understatement!
My stroke mainly affected my speech and face. My speech therapists diagnosed me with dysarthria (a motor speech disorder where nervous system damage weakens or paralyzes the muscles used for speech).
I went full force into my recovery learning this, doing speech therapy nearly everyday and practising by myself when I could, it took several months, but I can now talk normally again, I still slur my speech or pronounce words wrong, and worsens more when I’m tired, which still frustrates me, but I’m in a much better place to where I was last year. I have post-stroke fatigue as well, but I’m trying to tackle that by going on runs to improve it. And in terms of my heart, I’ve had a PFO closure heart surgery that has reduced the possibility of me having a stroke again!
I found out about Different Strokes through the hospital. I was given a leaflet by one of the nurses and told me all about this charity. I joined the Facebook group not long after that and introduced myself and what had happened to me, and the welcome I received was overwhelming. It really helped me realise that I wasn’t alone in this, other people were going through the same experiences as me and that they were there to support and listen to me.
The main lesson I want people to get from my story is to be patient with yourself. I was so impatient to get better as fast as possible so that I could ‘get back to normal’ and put it all behind me like it had never happened, but that’s not how this works, this will be with me forever, and although I will recover more over time, I will never be the same again, and having support to accept this fact is essential to recovery, having people listen to you about all your frustrations or worries is so so important.
I'm grateful for the early diagnosis of my stroke
I was lucky that my stroke was caught so quickly, and the hospital took my case seriously, as I know that doesn’t always happen for people my age, as we’re led to believe that strokes can’t happen to young people, but I am proof that it’s not the case. Future people and health care workers need to be educated that this can happen to all ages, and to take every case seriously.
Even to this day I still find myself getting upset that this happened to me, that it isn’t fair, but those days are becoming few and far between. My plan for the future, although cliche, is to live life to the fullest! I was quite an anxious person before my stroke, always worried about something or someone, but now I want to travel to places, try new things and experience stuff I would never even have considered experiencing before my stroke.
I’m planning to see a Wonder of the World every year, and I am training right now to run for Different Strokes during the London’s Landmark Half Marathon next year, to raise awareness to people my age that this can happen to anyone and they need support.
Help Tia with raising money for Different Strokes
To show her appreciation for Different Strokes for all they’ve done for her, Tia will be taking on the huge challenge of running the 10th anniversary edition of the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April 2027 for the charity that helped when she needed them.
Make a smile lottery is a weekly fundraising lottery. A fun and exciting way to help Different Strokes raise vital funds that will secure our future.
It only costs £1 per play, and you can choose to play every week or whenever you feel like taking a chance and doing something good. For more information click here.
