For the 3rd year in a row Ella and I wanted to do something to raise money for charity and have chosen to complete the Lindfield Village 5k run to raise money for 2 different charities on behalf of 2 very special people.

One of the charities is University Hospitals Dorset NHS Charity (stroke department) - stroke strikes every 5 minutes. 100,000 people have strokes each year. There are 1.3 million stoke survivors in the UK - and one of those is our fabulous friend, Matt Chinery who you may know had a stroke in June 2022.

He’s improving day-by-day thanks in part to the early days he spent in hospital receiving care from the Stroke department. Matt continues to make huge progress - looking back at the pics of when we took our Senior Manager’s Meeting to Bournemouth in Oct last year to Matt getting to Leicester to be with the team last month (accompanied by Jacob 😬) - the epiphany of hard work and determination (Izzy might even say stubbornness?!)

Some words from Matt:

My stroke was like learning everything again - one side of me working every day to lead a normal life again. My early time was invaluable, nay a godsend, by the hospital and the Walkabot (see pic!). For 3 months, working my voice, my leg, and my arm setting me up for doing it on my own. I am still working on it after nearly a year, but it gets easier every day - partly due to the foundation the doctor, nurses, psychologists, physicians and their equipment meant I had a running-start to what I expected. The other part is the people I’d known (like Jo) and colleagues who’ll make me, every day matter to them, the team and the work I do.