Stroke is a devastating disease and the leading cause of adult disability. The age of stroke onset is dropping and the incident of stroke is rising in sub Saharan Africa. Risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, diet, rising levels of obesity.

Early stroke care and good quality rehabilitation is vitally important in optimising recovery from stroke. In Sierra Leone there are no stroke units or stroke focussed rehabilitation in hospitals or the community outside of private health care. Many working age adults including those with young families lose employment and earnings with the resultant poverty.

Patrick pictured – is from Sierra Leone, he worked on the stroke unit at Addenbrookes hospital for many years. He returned to Sierra Leone and dedicated himself to setting up stroke services in Bo, the second city. Working with his team from Cambridge and Cambridge Global Health Partnership, we hope to make this a reality.

Story so far:

We are working with the local hospital in Bo and the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone:

1.We have been given a ward within the hospital to use as a centre for our pathway.

2. We have started training nurses and health assistant in stroke care and rehabilitation

3. We were awarded a grant for the Burdett trust to train six nurses in leadership skills and are working alongside them to support the following projects:

• Risk awareness programme through television and multimedia

• Blood pressure awareness training and roll out programme

• ECG recognition linking with the cardiac unit in Addenbrookes

• Rehabilitation training linking with community workers

• Setting up a database to understand issues and monitor progress

• Public health checks in markets and town centres for risk checks and advice

We are trying to raise £30,000 to equip the stroke unit, train the staff and disseminate training to community workers and other hospitals. We are working alongside our colleagues in Sierra Leone to build the expertise to manage their own service. There are many ways you can get involved, please be part of this vision.

1. We have an Art sale (Art4SierraLeone) https://sl-stroke-partnership.site/events

2. A Strava free group (donate £5 to Justgiving and join us) walking virtually from Cambridge to Sierra Leone called the 'Sierra Leone walking challenge', Cambridge UK - see Strava free app: https://www.strava.com/clubs/SierraLeoneStrokechallenge

3. A Film - a documentary called 'Rosie' exploring the effects of stroke disability on Rosie and her friends a family. All proceeds going to Sierra Leone stroke unit fund.