As you may or may not know my grandfather (Ronald James Connors) suffered his first major stroke in January 2003 on a flight back from New York, the aircraft was diverted to Newfoundland, Canada where he received life saving treatment at the St Johns hospital, the treatment he received was astounding and ultimately saved his life, we later learned on his return to the UK that he would not have received this treatment here so would not have survived.  We all new very little about what a stroke was and how it can effect not only the sufferer but our entire family, our worlds were turned upside down, my grandfather was almost completely paralysed on the right hand side of his body and his sight (we later found out from an optician who made home visits whom we found thanks to the stroke association) was also affected.  Seeing my grandfather going from the big strong protective man, who raised me from birth, to only a fraction of the man he once was, was completely devastating but I could still see in his eyes that he was still there, it is hard to describe. He needed us to do everything for him, he had carers visiting throughout the day to tend to some of his needs. With the rehabilitation he was slowly making progress, firstly managing to lift small items then going on to walking a few paces, taking a stroll along the seafront (one of his favourite places) and holding my daughter, Brooke, who was born in November 2004.  His improvements continued at a slow pace.

My grandfather went on to suffer numerous more strokes,each stroke made him weaker and cruelly he passed  in January 2006, 2 weeks before my son was born, I was given comfort by the fact that my grandfather heard my sons heartbeat and new I was having a baby boy who was going to take his name, incidentally he is called Taylor Ronald James Connors and is just like his great-grandfather, full of confidence and with the cheeky glint in his eyes.

Had we known more about the nations 3rd largest cause of death we could have done our part too.  We, as a family have learnt not to dwell on the should and could haves, we consider ourselves blessed to have had my amazing grandfather in our lives, he was inspiration to us all and still is a huge part of our lives.

After watching the marathon this year I decided I wanted to do the marathon and when I saw some competitors wearing vests from the stroke association I new I had to apply and do my part to raise as much as possible to help the amazing work the stroke association do.  Strokes are cruel, scary and life changing events that we all need to know about, its not only the elderly that can suffer but the young too and if I can do my part to help I will.

So thanks everyone for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now, take care all and speak to you soon

Love, hugs and kisses

Emma xx