Young NI stroke survivors, Clodagh Dunlop, Ciara Murray, and Lisa Lecky, share story of friendship found after life-changing illness

At the beginning of 2015, Clodagh Dunlop, Ciara Murray, and Lisa Lecky were strangers - three young women in their thirties, from different parts of Northern Ireland, each with their lives ahead of them. They had a few things in common. They all enjoyed their work - Clodagh as a police officer, Lisa as an administrator and Ciara in the office of a secondary school. Clodagh and Lisa were both runners. Lisa and Ciara were both expecting a baby. Little could they have known that later that year, they would all suffer life-changing strokes and that their paths would cross after being admitted to the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit (RABIU) at Musgrave Park Hospital.

Clodagh, from Magherafelt, was just 35 when she suffered a stroke which resulted in Locked-in Syndrome. This left her completely paralysed and only able to communicate through a Blinkboard. Clodagh spent nearly eight months in hospital fighting through an experience most people would consider their worst nightmare.

She said: “When I woke up in the Intensive Care Unit it was a terrifying experience. I couldn’t move a muscle but inside my head I was screaming ‘I’m here!’. I was a prisoner in my own body.”

“For almost three months I was unable to move or speak but my mind remained completely alert, and I was fully aware of everything happening around me. Eventually, I started to show some signs of recovery and was transferred to RABIU where I had to learn to breathe, swallow, walk and talk again.”

At RABIU, in the bed opposite Clodagh’s, was another stroke patient - Lisa Lecky.

Lisa, from Belfast, had a stroke aged 37 while eight weeks pregnant. Waking up in the Royal Victoria Hospital after her stroke was a shock for Lisa as she recalls: “When I came round, I was extremely agitated because my one-year-old son Conor was at home and needed me. It was over a month before I was able to see him again. In total, I was in hospital for six months, over half of Conor’s little life; it was heartbreaking. I was also worried sick about the impact on the baby because of the trauma and the general anaesthetic. Thankfully, baby Orla was fine.

“After my stroke I had to wait until after Orla was born to learn to walk again due to my growing bump, so I had to use a wheelchair. My partner Adam and I had to move in with my parents so they could care for me, and he could continue to work. As a young mum having to use a wheelchair and not being able to look after myself or my babies was just awful.”

After Orla was born, Lisa attended RABIU as an outpatient for ongoing physiotherapy. “I heard on the grapevine there was another woman there who had had a stroke and had a baby. We met and got talking as we had so much in common.”

That woman was Ciara Murray from Enniskillen, who was just 32 years old and 36½ weeks pregnant when she suffered a stroke - on World Stroke Day.

Ciara said: “When I had my stroke, my husband John was at work, so I was lying there for seven hours slipping in and out of consciousness. The doctors said if I had been there much longer, the baby or I might not have made it. The day after my stroke the doctors removed a clot from my brain and delivered my baby at the same time. I was put into an induced coma, and I remained unconscious for 10 days. When I finally came round, a nurse on the stroke ward broke the news that I’d had a baby boy, James.”

Ciara’s recovery was just beginning but it was a long road ahead. “I had to use a hoist, a catheter, a wheelchair, I was fed liquid food, and I had to relearn to walk.”

“When I got the news I had to go to RABIU, I was devastated. I knew I had to go to get better for James, but I dreaded being so far away from him. I would go home to Fermanagh for the weekend on Fridays and on Sunday evenings when I had to go back to RABIU I would have to tell my family to take James away from me, because I couldn’t look at him without breaking down.”

While RABIU was extremely challenging for Ciara, a silver lining was that she met Clodagh and Lisa there. The three women have stayed in touch ever since, sharing experiences and advice, forming a strong and unbreakable bond.

Ciara explains: “It’s great to talk to people who know what you are going through. The three of us all suffer with pain in our feet, and we can understand each other, what it’s like and give each other tips we’ve learned on how to cope.”

Clodagh added: “Lisa and Ciara have been such a huge part of my recovery because they totally understand the feelings and emotions I've had around stroke. They totally get how devastating stroke can be and understand how difficult it is to rebuild your life. Yet despite all the devastation, despite stroke blowing our lives apart, I love nothing more than meeting Lisa and Ciara and we just simply laugh and talk together.”

After they left RABIU, the friends gained one more thing in common when Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS) came into their lives. All three attended the charity’s Post Rehab Exercise Programme (PREP), a physiotherapy-led, community-based course which helps rebuild people's lives following a stroke.

Clodagh explains what PREP means after a devastating stroke. “When I was discharged, there was a real void in aftercare. Especially as a young person, feeling you are on your own in this scary and uncertain new life has a huge impact on your mental health. Unfortunately, it led to me having suicidal thoughts but into that void came NICHS and PREP.”

Lisa added: “I feel that it saved my life going to the Young Stroke Support Group, I will be forever grateful. When I walked in, I said to myself, ‘This is exactly what I need, people who are living like me and know what I’m going through’. It gave me so much hope and everyone was so inspiring and supportive.”

Ursula Ferguson, director of Care Services at Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke, said: “We hope these inspirational young women will encourage the public to help us be able to give hope for the future to others affected by devastating chest, heart and stroke illnesses. Through determination and hard work, Clodagh, Lisa, and Ciara have reclaimed the lives they deserve- and we want to be able to help as many people as possible to do this too.

“One of the biggest changes our Care team have seen in recent years is the shift in age of stroke survivors. There are now more than 40,000 stroke survivors in Northern Ireland and over 50% are under 75 years old. We have seen more and more people coming through our doors in urgent need of support, challenging the misconception that strokes only affect the elderly.”

“In order to support these people however we need the public’s help. Almost 90% of our income comes from public donations and Clodagh’s, Lisa’s and Ciara’s stories explain just how important this support is, the difference it can make, and how it can provide the gift of hope, support, and friendship, helping individuals overcome the darkest of times in their lives.”

“We really appreciate any support people can give us. From a £1 donation, which may seem so small, to thousands of pounds from a fundraising event, every pound is important and really helps us to make a difference and help the thousands of local people who need us.”

For more information about NICHS’s stroke services, visit www.nichs.org.uk/stroke-support . To read more about the charity Gift of Hope Christmas campaign, visit www.nichs.org.uk/giftofhope