Team Striders gonna Stride4stroke
On my 13th Birthday I received a Better Homes & Gardens magazine subscription. I was ecstatic! My dream career was to be a Landscape architect. At High School my elective subjects consisted of Agriculture, Technical Drawing and Woodwork - I completed work experience at Dubbo City Council - Parks and Gardens, which landed me my Apprenticeship in Horticulture. I was on the Garden Path to TV Presenting Fame!
I was just shy of my 18th birthday and had been sick with what I thought was migraines for a week. It was the day that we were re-vamping a roundabout on the main street of Dubbo when suddenly I had ended up in hospital.
I remember snippets after this - my mother stressing to the doctors that something more was wrong.
My father who has always made light of every situation, made a joke about how "only you would collapse in a patch of Bindi’s" These of course were still in my hair, an accessory that I would not recommend!
What was thought to be a migraine, was in fact vasculitis impact of the brain. I had been working in the heat on that roundabout, which apparently made the blood thicken and restricted the blood flow. I woke up to find I had suffered a minor stroke.
My stroke ceased my career in the outdoors. It also potentially changed my life as upon a check-up years later they found 5 brain tumours (call me greedy :-P ). After years of putting off the inevitable... I realized I needed to change my way of living - I took the plunge just over a year ago and sought help.
I am nothing short of determined to succeed in all that I do, to live a much healthier and fulfilled lifestyle with the support and love of those around me.
Sadly there are so many others I know, that do/did not have such minor after effects as I. There are survivors who still suffer years after a severe, minor or mini-stroke or did not in fact survive at all. THIS is why I am 'Striding 4 Stroke'.