I'm taking part in the Stride for Stroke challenge!
I joined #TeamStroke for Stride for Stroke. I will be taking one step for each of the 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK. The 1.3 million steps challenge works out at 10,000 steps a day for 130 days.
My name is Catriona and, I am now singing the song of Marks life. Mark was my loving, caring, loyal, kind and ‘daft as a brush’ husband and a good friend to many. Mark led a musical life; every person he met was a note in his melody.
Over many years, Marks health started to decline. He started to slur his words, which then progressed onto stammering and then he started to jumble up his words. Mark then started to have problems with his balance. He was told by the doctors that he was suffering from depression and anxiety and that any symptoms displayed were psychosomatic and that he would wake up one day and would be walking and talking beautifully.
A couple of years before lockdown, I stopped working in order to support Marks health, Mark also had to stop working. We had to live off Marks private works pension and swing into action with our version of speech therapy and physiotherapy. Mark fought hard and embraced Tai Chi, QiGong, yoga and meditation to help him with his balance and morale.
Finally, just before lockdown, Mark was told that his symptoms were the result of an old head injury. This meant that Mark was finally able to get speech therapy and physiotherapy through the NHS. Mark was told that he had developed aphasia, both with his speaking and hearing.
As time went on, Mark started to suffer from confusion, severe headaches and loss of coordination. On the 24th December 2021, Mark was admitted to hospital. On Christmas day, I received a phone call when I was informed that Marks brain was so badly scarred with strokes, that they were astonished that he could do anything. The Consultant was even more astonished when I told him that we did not know that Mark had been having strokes, and he had received no treatment for them. Once I had it explained to me that strokes displayed themselves in many different ways and not just how you see it on the adverts, we were then able to trace them back at least 16 years. On the 8th of February 2022, Mark sadly lost his fight for life without ever knowing that he had been having strokes.
I have two other family members who had strokes, and who also sadly died. I am now dedicating my time to raising money and awareness for the Stroke Association.
