As you may know, on 27th March 2013, I had a severe stroke while I was running in Kensington Gardens.  Within the space of a few seconds, I collapsed and lost consciousness.  Completely by chance, Anthony was running nearby, caught sight of me and carried me home.

I don't remember any of it very clearly, but I was taken to hospital  and was rushed into the operating theatre as soon as scans confirmed what was going on.  I had five and a half hours of operations on my brain (fully conscious the whole time) and, thanks to some pretty amazing surgeons, survived.

But my life had changed

On my left side, I had no finger, wrist, arm or foot movement, and very limited leg movement.  I could only speak about three slurred words at a time, and had almost no concentration.  I had sensory inattention on my left side, including some visual loss, and spent the next week in intensive care.  During that time, I mostly remember feeling completely exhausted.

The stroke was caused by a faulty valve and hole in my heart, which was pushing clots towards my brain.  On 12th April, I had a heart operation to fix this, and could set my sights on pushing my body a bit more.

Recovery is taking time, and it remains ongoing.  I had to learn to walk pretty much from scratch, and also had to learn to use my left hand again.  I still don't have normal sensation in it, but hopefully this will return as time goes on.  Fatigue is still a big problem for me, but most days show some sort of improvement.

I ran for the first time on 15th May, about 7 weeks after the stroke.  It's taken a lot of hard work and determination, and every day has been a struggle.  Since I was running when the stroke occurred, it seems appropriate to use this both as a personal goal and as a way to raise money for a related charity.  On 14th July, I am hoping to run 10km in the BUPA Great Edinburgh Run, and I would be very grateful if you were able to make some sort of contribution to the Stroke Association on my behalf.

Thank you very much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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Love,

Cathy