In February 2022 I suffered a brain haemorrhage stroke. First losing the ability to move my right arm and then my right leg, I was extremely lucky to be surrounded by people who knew to get me to hospital quickly - which means I’m here today.

A new part of my brain has had to take over the part that has been damaged. After two weeks in hospital I learnt to walk to the end of a room, with a stick, two people to support me and a splint to help raise my foot. I slowly increased the distance and lost the aids, first getting 50 yards down the road to pick the boys up from the school bus and then further and further up to 8 miles. Although my Neurophysio isn’t as gruelling as it was, I’m still doing it every other day - I can walk but it’s not perfect and rebuilding muscles often means I’m aching.

Before the stroke I was a keen distance walker and walked the Leicestershire round (110 miles) over 5 days and the coast to coast (210+ miles) over 12 days. So I needed a challenge to aim for, Rutland Water, a 23 miles walk that I’ll be doing over a single day with Clare. Along with my boys she has been a great support. My boys will also join in for what they can manage, so it’ll be a family effort, we may even take the dog!

I’m raising money for Different Strokes, the group I’m part of has been really important in my recovery. Here’s a bit about them…

Every year 100,000 people have a stroke and a 1/4 of these people are under the age of 65. That's 25,000 younger people whose lives are changed in an instant.

Stroke is also the single biggest cause of disability in the UK, but it's not always the visible disabilities that stroke survivors have to contend with, debilitating fatigue, cognitive problems and personality changes can also be a lifelong challenge, preventing them from returning to work or bringing up a young family.

Different Strokes empowers younger survivors to reclaim themselves.