As many of you already know, back in November 2014 I was involved in a bad car crash, that caused me to suffer a TIA (or mini-stroke) at the scene of the crash. Initially this left me re-learning the muscle memory of how to use cutlery & eat without needing book-ending by a nurse to prop up my left hand side, as well as how to walk straight. By the time, a month later, that I was discharged from hospital the PT's & OT's had me back in the gym by the ward & distinctly more physically independent. 

However for me this was the point the real challenges began. Tackling the post-stroke fatigue to build back up to working full time, sufficient balance & co-ordination to cycle again, then driving again & adapting coping strategies in find my "new normality" & minimise the impact of the very minor brain damaged caused. This is the point the Stoke Association stepped in. Critically, for someone who wasn't allowed to drive or cycle, their representative did home visits & helped me with everything from finding what support I could access (such as the Access to Work Scheme), to memory games & exercises to help regain some of what I had lost, to tips & leaflets to help me adapt to find what my "new normality" was. To me they filled a gap that was otherwise unmet or extremely difficult to access. In an area where 90% of the support materials available are pitched at an audience a generation or more older than I was at the time, these personalised one-on-one conversations gave me a relevant outlet of information & answers. As well as being a friendly, smiling face behind all the reassurance, when the world seem stacked against me.

I would like to ensure that continues to be available to anyone else who might end up in the situation I found myself in. I assure you, there is nothing you want more at that point, than for "everything to go back to normal". Unfortunately it never truly will, but at least you can be supported through to that realisation.

Having left it so late to commence this fund raising drive I have set a conservative total goal - please make the months of training & inevitable pain on the day & afterwards worth as much as possible for this life fixing charity. I will be immensely grateful for anything you can spare.

Laurie x

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