Abbie Sitlinton

I'm taking part in the Great North Run 2025 as part of #TeamStroke

I joined #TeamStroke for the Great North Run 2025.

There are over 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK, with 100,000 strokes happening in the UK each year. That's one stroke every five minutes.

In 2017 our Granny suffered a spinal stroke, leaving her paralysed from the waist down. Our Grandma is a huge part of our lives and not only helped raise us but made our childhood magical. She created our silliness, our love of life and had the ability to make any room light up. We spent everyday in summer on the beach eating sand-filled sandwiches, playing blocky 123 and building sand cars (she never did anything by halves). 

Her stroke took away her independence and stopped her from being the bubbly social butterfly she has always been. It has impacted our family drastically, we have had to make huge adjustments and all step up to help care for her. Her stroke didn’t wait for her to be done with living, she was still going on holidays, entertaining and looking after us all. She has found her change in role very difficult and still struggles daily.

On the 7th of September me and my cousin Alice will be running the Great North Run for the Stroke Association, in honour of our beautiful Grandma. My Grandma spent 7 months in Pinderfields Hospital where she received amazing care, rehabilitation and treatments. She met stroke survivors ranging in ages and backgrounds, it truly can happen to anyone no matter your health or age. The stroke association fund research helping improve rehabilitation and treatment whilst offering life long support on the long recovery journey of stroke survivors and their families.

We are grateful for any donations no matter how small, lets try and raise as much money as possible in honour of my Grandma and all of the brave people taking each day as it comes recovering from a stroke. It’s not a race, IT’S A MARATHON!