Co Down mum ​Nicola Shaw shares her experience of having a stroke at just 44

Nicola Shaw from Ballygowan hopes speaking out will help inspire other young stroke survivors to keep fighting on their recovery journey. She also wants to raise awareness that stroke is not something that only affects older people, it can happen to anyone, at any age, and that young stroke support could be hugely improved.

Nicola said: “I had my stroke on Friday, December 16, 2022. It was just another ordinary day, and I could never have imagined it would end with me having a stroke.

“Over the course of 2022 I had started training, going to a spin class three times a week, a strength class three times a week, and a HITT class once a week. I had lost five and a half stone, so I was fitter, stronger and healthier than I had felt for a few years. I was at spin class the night I had my stroke.

"As I was walking down the corridor after the class, I had what I would describe as an out of body experience. It was as if I was looking down on myself and I was asking, ‘who is that with the floppy right arm?’. I tried to move my arm and it just flopped down. I also had right-sided numbness, pins and needles and my tongue felt like it didn’t fit in my mouth, like it was really badly swollen.

“After a while it felt like whatever had happened had resolved itself, so I went out to my car - although it transpired this was just temporary. I started to drive home and was on a phone call when I became very aware I couldn’t speak properly. After I came off that call, I rang an ex-colleague who worked in nursing and explained what had happened. She said I didn’t sound like myself and with the symptoms I had experienced I should go to A&E to get checked out.”

As Nicola’s husband Darren was driving her to the Ulster Hospital, the symptoms she had experienced earlier came back. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Nicola arrived at hospital she had to go into A&E and face the next steps alone.

“I was called to triage within minutes. The next thing, I heard the urgent page for the stroke team. A registrar and doctor came in and explained that because of my symptoms they needed to rule out stroke and I was being taken straight for a CT scan.”

“The first CT scan was clear so they repeated it with dye but that was clear too. By now my speech was back to normal but my right arm was still useless. The doctors therefore decided to treat me as if I had had a stroke, so I was given the clot busting drug Thrombolysis and was admitted to the stroke ward.”

Nicola was later told she had suffered an ischaemic stroke which had been caused by a clot.

“I was in hospital for five nights and when I was discharged I received no signposting, no follow up appointments, nothing. I was shocked by that and I think how I was dealt with upon discharge could have been better.”

Nicola contacted her GP surgery once she got home but unfortunately received no immediate support there either.

“It felt scary and isolating - I was ok, but I wasn’t ok. From the health service’s perspective, I had a minor stroke, but it had a major impact on mine and my family's life.”

Back at home Nicola started her recovery but the impact of the stroke was life-changing. With no support from statutory services, she started looking for alternative organisations who could help and came across Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS).

“I made direct contact with the charity and Dawn Beckett was assigned as my care services coordinator. Dawn was a listening ear which was great, but she was also able to signpost me to practical support offered by NICHS such as their Return to Work Programme as well as putting me in touch with a fellow charity to avail of their befriender service and stroke counselling service.”

Later on in her recovery Nicola decided she wanted to give something back to the charity, by organising a fundraising raffle. She has also been highlighting to health services how the support she received as a young stroke survivor was inadequate.

“I fed back to the medical team that what they class as a minor stroke can have a major impact on the patient, particularly psychologically, something which I felt they had no understanding of.

"I also highlighted that young stroke survivors’ goals will be very different to those of an older person who has had a stroke. I was trying to get back to things like work, a high level of activity, being a properly engaged mummy and the services I received, or rather didn’t receive, as a younger person affected by stroke were just not reflective of that."

Nicola added: “People have this misperception that because I don’t have a droop in face or because my speech isn’t slurred etc that I can’t have had a stroke. For me it has been useful to be able to raise awareness and highlight to people that you can have a stroke at any age and stage in life."

Nicola recently had surgery to fix the cause of her stroke – a hole in her heart.

“I now know I'm not at risk of a further ischaemic stroke and it’s comforting to know the same thing can’t happen again. I’m back training and at the end of February I got back into employment working as a Senior HR Consultant.”

If you have been affected by stroke and need support visit https://nichs.org.uk/stroke-support for more information.