In July 2002 I was a very fit healthy 32 year old, when I suffered a stroke while on a motorcycling holiday to Germany with a group of friends.The stroke happend as we were on our way home traveling through Belgium. Apparantly I passed out on my bike and collided with a friend and then slid along the road stopping just short of a fairly steep drop down into a valley. My motorcycle wasn't so luckly and tumbled over the edge and was never seen again. I can't remember the holiday now and my memory of the couple of months before the stroke is not good. All I remember is waking up in a Belgium hospital where hadly anyone spoke English, not being able to move the left side of my body, not being able to speak clearly, and in a lot of pain from my shoulder and arm.

I flew home and my wife was waiting for me at the airport. We knew my injuries were not just from a motorcycle accident and my wife took me straight to our local hospital. It was only after various tests that I was told I had suffered a stroke.

I then spent 4 weeks in Hospital and was discharged with very limited movement down the left side of my body, a broken left arm in plaster and my right shoulder badly damaged. The doctors could not tell me if I would get all my movement back so I headed home unsure of my future.

Over the next few months I attended physio sessions twice a week and started working hard in the Gym. Slowly I regained control of my body. It took about a year for me to get back to my normal life and to start work again. I was very lucky that I have no lasting effects of the stroke apart from being slightly weaker on my lefthand side. I am running the Flora London Marathon 2006 to raise money for The Stroke Association.

Thanks to every one who has sponsored me. I completed the London Marathon in a time of 3 hrs 10 mins 30 secs. It was one of the best days of my life and also one of the hardest.