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My name is Lawrence. This is my first Christmas as a stroke survivor.

Your donation is helping my kids get their Daddy back.

The morning of Saturday, 10th February, is a moment seared on my mind forever. I was feeling great, life was going really well, I’d recently started a new job, and I was loving it.

After playing with the kids, I went to make a coffee. But as I was pouring the milk my arm suddenly dropped. I remember watching the cup overflow. I was powerless to stop it. I felt dizzy, almost as if I wasn’t there at all. My heart started racing. Something felt very, very wrong. I was having a stroke.

 

My wife, Joanna knew immediately what was happening to me and called 999. That’s when things started to get scarier. When the amazing paramedics arrived and tried to talk to me, I was confused and couldn’t get my words in the right order.

 

My 8-year-old son kept asking them if his Daddy was dying.

 

At the hospital, I was given a clot-busting treatment called thrombolysis. In what felt like the flick of a switch, I came back. When I got home from hospital, I felt lost. I found it hard to cope with family life again and I was so tired. The fatigue after a stroke is unlike anything I had ever experienced. It still affects me to this day. Fergus asked if I’d ever be the same Daddy. I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know.

 

But everything changed when I spoke to Tracey from Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland’s Advice Line. This incredible service that you fund, is helping me put the pieces of my life back together. Tracey listened to my fears, my anxieties, questions I didn’t even know how to ask. She told me to take it one step at a time, and I believed her. I spoke to her once a week for months.

 

By funding Tracey’s work, you are helping me see past my stroke. You’re teaching me to be kinder to myself and celebrate the small “wins” on my road to recovery. I’m so very glad though that when I had a stroke, I was able to get support in my recovery because of your generosity and your support of this amazing charity.

 

When you give to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, you are giving more than a donation. You are giving people like me a gift; a chance to do more than just survive – to really live.

 

Every pound you give ensures someone has the chance to survive and thrive after a life-threatening experience like stroke.

£10

Will fund a call to our Advice Line nurses for anyone worried about the effects of stroke.

Donate £10

£20

Will give someone one hour of vital one-to-one help with a support worker to get back to enjoying life when they come home from hospital.

Donate £20

£40

Would help train a volunteer kindness caller to make sure there is always someone at the end of the phone for people in need of help.

Donate £40

£50

Your gift will mean that someone can attend an online support group for three months, helping them cope with the emotional and physical impact of stroke.

Donate £50

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