Stroke Association

Stroke is devastating when it happens to anyone, but for younger people, the effects of stroke can last a lifetime. Fatigue. Memory loss. Emotional problems and physical disabilities. These are only a handful of problems that a young stroke survivor might be dealing with. But for someone like Alex, who had a stroke at 23, she will live with the effects of her stroke much longer than she ever did without. Young stroke survivors not only survive a stroke; they live with it, and this can mean #MissedMilestones. It can change the relationships they have with their children, the jobs they work, or the grades they receive from school. As Alex says in the video, "Every aspect of my life changed." As part of #WorldStrokeDay, share Alex's story and help other people understand what stroke means for young survivors.

Jen has worked at the Stroke Association for over six years in the People Development Team, and like many of us, has a personal connection to stroke. "In 2014, my Nan had a strong headache and took herself to bed. When she woke up, her symptoms worsened, and she was rushed to hospital. She was having a stroke, and whilst she continued to live with the symptoms, she made a good recovery overall." "Unfortunately, my lovely Grandad had a different story. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia which the doctors said was caused by multiple, small, 'silent' strokes over time, he passed away a couple of years later." These events pushed Jen to leave her finance job to pursue a "more meaningful career" and now she wants to give back by taking on the #LondonMarathon. "I’ve worked here for over 6 years and it’s given me so much. I've loved cheering on our runners at the Great Runs so it will be an absolute honour to wear purple and yellow at the London Marathon." This isn't Jen’s first time in purple. In 2015, she and her husband Mark ran the Stroke Association’s Resolution Run at Hagley Hall, Mark will also be running with Jen this weekend. "This was my first race. About halfway I wanted to give up but Mark gave me a pep talk and we finished together. He’s my biggest cheerleader." Training hasn't been the smoothest for Jen, as she caught COVID and acquired a hip injury. But despite those setbacks, she's worked hard because she knows what difference her fundraising will make. "I’ve heard stories of the people we've supported and what difference we’ve made. Their highs, lows, their achievements, and their resilience. I’ll never tire of hearing them. " Join us in wishing the best of luck to Jen, Mark, and all of #TeamStroke this Sunday in the comments below! 💜

Would you have benefited from speaking with another stroke survivor or carer when you or your loved one returned home from hospital? Do you think you could provide that support for someone else? By signing up to be a Here For Your volunteer, you can help people affected by stroke to take the next step in their recovery or caring journey through weekly phone calls. We're seeking volunteers from the UK with over one year's lived experience of stroke as a survivor or a carer. You’ll need to have an email address and be comfortable accessing online training. Register here to help people affected by stroke: https://bit.ly/3YoZsGe

Julie, Steve and Tom developed communication difficulties after their strokes. 💬 Our documentary, When the Words Away Went, is about their efforts to push through those challenges. Through fears of embarrassment, judgment, and extraordinary hardship, and to be heard however necessary. 💬 This is why we're delighted our film's been shortlisted for a Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence Award in 2024, so we can continue to find new and interesting ways to shout about their stories! 📣

Some people describe it as Christmas, Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and your birthday all rolled into one... 👇 That’s right. Abstract submissions are now open for the largest multidisciplinary stroke conference in the UK, the UK Stroke Forum, where we successfully bring the biggest 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 in the stroke community together, year after year. Submit now to have your work seen by thousands of other stroke researchers and health professionals at ACC Liverpool, 3 to 5 December: https://bit.ly/4264d9p Prizes are available, and submissions will close on Thursday, May 23.

As a paramedic, Hazel knows how she and her crewmates often feel worried when they are called out to see someone who may have had a stroke. "When I was on the road it was scary to see something very obvious was wrong with someone but yet you can't do anything about it, it's frustrating having the inability to make it better. Many things can mimic a stroke so when you see a patient it can be hard to tell if it's a stroke or not." Hazel now works for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, managing a stroke research team at a Hyper Acute Stroke Unit. She knew that there was already a lateral flow test being developed for concussion and she realised how helpful it would be to have something similar for diagnosing strokes. "We were talking about brain injury and I thought, if we can do this for brain injury caused by trauma, why can't we do this for stroke?" Since then, Hazel has been one of the GHoSt team working alongside Professor Antonio Belli, developing a potentially life-saving new test that could diagnose stroke through a saliva test. “I'm excited this has come to fruition. We anticipate that the science will support our idea and my colleagues believe it will." The team’s ideal outcome is that not only will the test be able to tell if someone's having a stroke, but also what type they are having. "Stroke is underrepresented, yet it has such an impact on someone's life once they've had one. It's also important to diagnose stroke as quickly as we can, and if it's a bleed or a clot, because if we give them the wrong treatment it will make things worse, but the right treatment makes the biggest difference." Hazel is looking forward to the future of this project and how this test will support paramedics when seeing potential stroke patients. "It will be a great feeling to give paramedics an additional tool in their toolbox so we can do more than just take people to hospital." This research is being funded by us. With your support, we can fund even more life-saving research and help rebuild life after stroke. Visit https://lnkd.in/esk7PE6K to donate and find out more.

The latest Professionals Network newsletter includes information about first-of-its-kind Brain Injury association Visual Impairment Questionnaire (BIVI-IQ), the 2024 UK Stroke Forum, free blood pressure checks and the #RightToRehab campaign we’re supporting.    Read more 👇 

Congratulations to Dr Nicholas Evans of the University of Cambridge, who has been awarded the prestigious Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lectureship. Dr Evans, a researcher funded by us, delivered his “Advances in stroke medicine: blood vessels, brains and beyond” last week. His research is looking at how treatment for older and frailer people who have had a stroke can be improved, this will also help his team understand what factors affect the effectiveness of thrombolysis and thrombectomy. "We see these people frequently come into hospital with strokes, but too often they have been excluded from research. As a result, we do not always know the best treatment for them. Our research will address that and make sure that we are giving the right treatment to the right people at the right time." Nick's lecture prominently features the Stroke Association, including his team's Stroke Association-supported work. It also covers the wider topic of stroke care and our Saving Brains campaign. We hope that Nick’s success will inspire other clinicians to get involved in stroke research and highlight the importance of this under-funded area. You can watch Dr Nick's talk on the Royal College's website: https://lnkd.in/dHJr-SJ3

Exciting news! Our charity partnership with the Stroke Association is shortlisted for TWO Business Charity Awards! Our whole team feel passionate about supporting #stroke survivors and we’re loving having an official charity partner for the very first time. We chose a charity which shares our interests and values – good health and the wellbeing of people with disabilities. Can we smash our 2023 donation total of £30,264? Let’s see! Kate Wright and the team want to THANK YOU if you supported one of these activities: •  The Posturite Pedal for Stroke (£10,528 raised) with cycling by Chris Jones, Jamie Pownceby, Matt O'Sullivan, Antony Burns and Andrew Howes, and headline sponsorship from Fellowes Brands, MDK Office Seating Limited, Flokk and BakkerElkhuizen. •  Our Support Stroke Sale (£8,576 raised in ‘23 – even more in ’24!) •  Our Quiz and London to Brighton cycle (£1,160 raised) •  Becoming Connect and Chat Telephone Volunteers – including chatty Michele Barnett and Hugo Youngman •  Providing free DSE training to the Stroke Association health and safety team – that’s you Debs Pettitt! Our wonderful Stroke Association Partnerships Manager Julia Simpson will keep us inspired during Year 2 of the partnership so onwards and upwards! #BusinessCharityAwards #CorporateFundraising #CSR Third Sector Ansvar Insurance

This #WorldSleepDay, we want to share our research that is sending people to sleep, for all the right reasons. Triin Ojakäär from @oxford_uni is researching the connection between deep sleep and stroke rehabilitation. Triin’s research is about a sleep stage called slow-wave sleep, which is known to have a key role in learning and memory. In her PhD, she is testing a new piece of technology that she thinks will improve the quality of slow-wave sleep, helping stroke survivors' brains rewire themselves faster and speed up the rehabilitation process. "Sleep plays a pivotal role in the stroke recovery journey by facilitating the formation of new neural connections during rehabilitation. These connections strengthen memory and the acquisition of movements—all crucial components of the recovery process following stroke." Triin first needs to understand what sleep is like for stroke survivors. She has been asking stroke survivors and people who have never had a stroke to wear an electroencephalogram (EEG) headband that records their brain activity while sleeping. Triin will then test the new technology, called a closed-loop auditory stimulation headset. This combines the EEG headband with bone-conduction headphones. The headphones will deliver short bursts of noise in time with brain activity when the headset detects slow-wave sleep. Past research has shown these timed noises can change brain activity during sleep and help boost memory. Triin's participants will test whether it can help with stroke rehabilitation by doing two memory tasks that haven't been tested before: hand movement sequences and locating objects on a computer screen. She will compare how stroke survivors perform tasks on the nights when the headset delivers noise and nights when it doesn’t. She’ll also look at whether their brain activity changes when they hear the noise from the headset. If Triin's trials are successful, the headset she is using could become a low-cost and at-home way for stroke survivors to get better-quality sleep and speed up the rehabilitation process, ultimately improving their quality of life. Visit https://bit.ly/3wSS8cT to learn more about sleep after stroke.