..I was a healthy, busy mum and had three children. I was a Financial Advisor, and then out of the blue I had a severe brain haemorrhage and was unconscious for 8 days. I was 35.

I spent a few weeks in the large Northern City Hospital, Neurological Unit, and then transferred back to my local hospital, where I began the long-term process of relearning and rehabilitation.

In many ways I was like a baby again. I suffered with both understanding language (receptive aphasia) and speaking it (expressive aphasia).

The words did not make sense and my arithmetical skills were destroyed. But I was extremely lucky and had intensive speech therapy for 4 years. I relearned in a formal way - treating it as if it was English as a foreign language – unlocking words

Half of my vision has also been destroyed. The medical term is – a hemianopia. It’s a common effect of stroke in which half of the field of vision of each eye is lost.

This is Paris what looks like if you’ve got this problem.




The Long Term Recovery Scale
2 years after by stroke, my sister showed me an article in the SHE magazine. It explained about Action For Dysphasic Adults, and how to set up a self-help group. I was very keen to have a group, but everybody agreed I still had too much fatigue. I still had therapy and struggled with stamina.

6 months later I’d made in enough progress to started the group.

At the early meetings carers came along too. However we soon realized we wanted to do it on our own – with out helpers. Just people who have aphasia and have a deep understanding from inside out.

We gained in confidence tremendously. Our group raises awareness about to the general public. It’s lovely to see newer members start to come and see how slowly their self-assurance improves

In summer 2000, 7 years after my stroke, I started part-time work in a financial services office again. I worked 4 hours in the mornings, three times a week. It was exhausting at first. I needed to sleep for 2 to 3 hours after each work session.

Slowly the tiredness improved and now the tiredness has just about gone.

A great interest in aphasia

I felt i had come to a new turning point in my life. I wanted to work more. I felt I had two options – doing more with financial services or my first choice – working with aphasia. I felt I had nothing to loose if I asked in a nice way. So I rang Speakability and wondered if there was a chance of getting a job.

They thought I had a deep understanding of aphasia and the disorder of language and I am doing the Professional Diploma in Stroke Care. They thought I would be good for the charity. We had meetings to get ideas of how I could help people with aphasia. They had seen I’d got my confidence back, when they’d seen some of my talks. My first job shows aphasic people how to get their confidence to do talks and presentations.

We’ve had workshops and the idea is to try and help people with aphasia to develop the confidence to give talks and presentations about aphasia to the general public. Most people don’t have any idea about this problem. The whole idea is spreading the word.

The workshop were particularly impressed by the quality of the presentations, and most moved by the stories. It was great to see how everybody had put so much time and care into the preparation.