I am taking on MTW Hospitals Charity Abseil on Saturday 15 June to raise funds for my local hospital.

In 2018, I was a Primary School teacher. I collapsed with a sudden bleed in my brain. Three months in hospital followed, including 16 hours of brain surgery at Kings in London. I left there unable to walk or even stand as the bleed caused a large stroke. I came home to Tunbridge Wells Hospital for rehab. One month later I wobbled across the car park with a Zimmer and a wheelchair came home with us. At home the fantastic Community Neuro physiotherapists from Sevenoaks got me walking properly, got me started on Pilates with lovely Rachel and returned me to the Kate I was before the bleed.

For that reason I would like to raise funds for the Physiotherapy Department.

But most importantly, I’d like to give hope to anyone who like me, cried inconsolably over the grandchildren I thought I would never be trusted to look after.

As a Christian I believe in the power of prayer. And if the worst case scenario is possible, so is the best. And I was blessed with the best. I’m back working full time, walking everywhere, 2 miles per day as a volunteer in Outpatients at TWH, and now abseiling down walls.

If at the time I’d truly believed this level of recovery could have been possible , those tears would have been replaced with optimistic hope and a smile.

If anyone like me, confined to bed with a stroke is reading this, listen to your physio. Do everything they say. Then you could be walking down a wall 5 years later.