Sailing 4 Stroke

By Glenn Browne

I have been a Merchant Seaman for almost 20 years

I have sailed on all sorts of vessels and worked on ships for many years. You could say that I have salt air in my blood. I saw my future self-working on ships until I was too old to walk the gangway.

But, like so many, my life was upended by a stroke.

In August 2020, I woke up with a pain in my jaw, but I didn’t think much of it. I drove to a mate's bakery and clipped another car on the way. It was very unlike me to have an accident; I was a very good driver with a clean record.

When I arrived at the bakery, I was slurring my words, limping and my arm was dangling. I had all the common signs of a stroke, but I didn’t know it. So, I went straight home.

I must have blacked out. I regained consciousness with my dog Miley licking my face and the phone ringing. By this time my neighbour had already called an ambulance as they had seen me moving oddly, earlier that day.

I spent three weeks in the acute ward and two months in rehab. And tests showed that I had a hole in my heart from birth. I had a PFO to fix it.

I had to learn everything again, to walk, to talk and do everyday activities. Stroke is like having the floor ripped out from under you. It’s a challenge and I have to focus on my mental health. I learned early on how important your mindset is. But it’s something I have to continuously work on. Emotions can creep up on you. And of course, Stroke doesn’t discriminate age. I always thought it only happened to older people until now

I find purpose in building stroke awareness in my community. I think things would have been different for me if I had known earlier that I was having a stroke.

Giving back to my community brings me a lot of joy. I run a raffle each week at the Mornington Yacht Club to raise money for our Sailability Program. I want to extend my thanks to the wonderful people at the Mornington Yacht Club. They have been behind me all the way and on November 30, we’ll be Sailing-4-Stroke for Stride4Stroke.

I will be doing everything that I can over November to build awareness of the risks of stroke and raise funds to support other people impacted by stroke. We all need to pull together and help each other.