Jan's story

A very warm thank you to everyone who reads our blog. In September 2010, at the age of 50 I had a brain haemorrhage which caused a severe stroke.  During the first 24-48 hours no-one knew if I would live. I did survive but was left with cognitive and visual damage and completely paralysed on my left side.  No-one believed I would recover - the statistics are scary - my haemorrhage accounts for only 15% of all strokes and of those 15%, over 80% die.
I have beaten the odds simply by continuing to live.
I spent 3 months in the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation hospital where my initial prognosis continued to be poor - that I would need 24/7 care for the rest of my life.
Three months after the stroke, on 20 Dwcember 2010 I walked out of hospital. :)
I walk with difficulty and need a stick but I do walk. In July 2011 DVLA returned my driving licence and I now drive with the help of a wonderful gadget that enables me to drive one handed as my left hand and arm remain non-functional.

I miss my left arm and am determined to regain as much function as I can. This will involve intensive physiotherapy, helped by various equipment. Unfortunately NHS funding constraints mean that quite simply there are not enough physiothertapists to provide the intensive support  each individual needs. All the equipment that could help improvement is expensive and the wireless functional electrical stimulation devices are not funded by the NHS.
There is no magic pill to regain my lost physical abilities  and even with equipment, recovery will only happen if I put time and effort in. I need to do at least 3-4 hours of physiotherapy every single day to enable my brain to develop new neural pathways, to re-learn the lost funtions.
I am training my brain to learn new ways of doing the old functions. It is bloomin hard work!
When Michaela said she wanted to raise funds tohelpme buy the essential equipment to help me regain my arm function, I was deeply touched and thought it a wonderful idea so I asked my physiotherapist if I could enter the competition. My first challenge was to see if I could get on and off the rower. I could (with help) so why not? I entered the competition along with Michaela and have been in training ever since . In my case this means once a week in the hospital  gym under physiotherapy supervision.