Mum did not expect to have stroke aged 32

Angarad Dennis knew. signs of stroke Because her grandmother had experienced something like that, and she thought migraines might put her at increased risk, too.

But she didn’t expect to get it at just 32 years old.

Dennis also said that after she suffered a stroke in March, she became upset when she asked her young daughter for help, such as putting socks on.

Dennis, from Swansea, said: “I don’t want my six-year-old son to have to do that. I help him put on his socks.”

She said she found it helpful to talk to others who had gone through similar experiences, and research from the charity Stroke Association found that talking to others is an important part of recovery for many people. It is suggested that.

Dennis said he often struggled to explain what happened to his daughter.

“When she falls, they put a band-aid on her. How do you explain that you can’t put a band-aid on her brain?” she said.

Dave Jones, who faced similar challenges seven years ago when he suffered a stroke six months after becoming a father, is now receiving support as a peer support coordinator for the Stroke Association.

“Dave was able to share with me the strategies he has used with his son, and I was able to draw inspiration from that,” Dennis said.

Of her stroke, she said, “At that point in my life, there was nothing to indicate that something as traumatic and big as this could happen.”

“We got married in November. Life wasn’t meant for me to get sick. We had a plan,” she said.

She added that while she was upset at the hospital, especially thinking about her daughter Kari, things became even more difficult when she got home.

The former school principal is doing her best to focus on accomplishments, such as walking from her car to the school gate without crutches, but the adjustment hasn’t always been easy.

“It was hard to see someone pick her up and physically drive her to school. That should have been me,” she said.

According to the charity Stroke Association, around 100,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year, which occurs at a rate of approximately one every five minutes.

More than 88,000 people survive the crisis each year, but the charity said this was only the beginning of a “long and traumatic battle” to find “a way back to life”.

The charity’s research found that half of stroke survivors felt depressed during their recovery, and 14% experienced suicidal thoughts.

But talking to others who have suffered a stroke turns out to be the most important part of a survivor’s recovery.

Jones can empathize with Dennis’ situation. In 2017, he was a healthy 36-year-old with a newborn baby, but two strokes within a year forced him to make major adjustments.

He said he initially focused on what he couldn’t do, but after receiving support from his peers, his mindset began to change.

“You start to focus on, ‘Maybe we can do this, let’s try it.'”

He also learned tips for managing his emotions from fellow stroke survivors.

Mr Jones was told he was unlikely to work again after his stroke, but he is now the Stroke Association’s Support Recovery Coordinator.

Some of the groups he supports are aimed at men under 70, the youngest of whom was 26 when he joined.

“One of the men said over and over again that if he hadn’t been in the group, he wouldn’t be here now. The group saved his life.”

Katie Chappell, deputy director of the Stroke Association, said around 7,000 people in Wales suffer a stroke each year and there are around 70,000 stroke survivors.

“It can leave them with everything from disability to communication problems to mental health problems, and a very common one is extreme fatigue,” she said, adding that stroke services are struggling due to lack of capacity. He added that he was struggling with this.

“For many stroke survivors, the community is where they really start to recover and progress, because once they leave the hospital, that’s the beginning of a long journey to recovery,” she says. Welsh Government plans Reconfigure the stroke service.

“If you can put people on the right path and give them what they need at the right time, you can really improve their outcomes,” she says.

Despite its challenges, Dennis said the stroke changed his outlook on his priorities in life.

“I used to come home from work at 5 o’clock every night, and I was really stressed out and just needed some space.”

He said he now “can’t wait” for his daughter to come home from school and has become more involved with her.

“I thought the way forward was to make a lot of money and be able to provide holidays and the best Christmas, but that wasn’t the case.

“All she wanted was me time. I don’t think she would have had that realization if she hadn’t had something like this happen in her life.”