My man was 44 & healthy but collapsed & died – I was pregnant with our 6th baby & am begging strangers for help
Amanda Conlon, 40, is hoping to raise £200,000 to pay off her mortgage after her partner Clint Robinson, 44, died from a stroke in July 2024.
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Clint was out tending to his vegetable patch on a sunny Thursday morning when he came stumbling inside asking his pregnant partner for help.
Amanda said: "While I rang 999 he was still able to talk a little bit - they were asking what happened and he said he'd got a headache and went dizzy.
"He went to call our two year old, and he said her name wouldn't come out of his mouth."
Clint was rushed by ambulance to Scunthorpe General Hospital's stroke unit where he complained that he was unable to feel the left side of his body.
Amanda, who rushed to the hospital in pursuit of her partner, says a nurse told her she should return home to allow Clint to rest, and had assured her he'd be back to normal by the following day.
When she tried to return to the hospital at 8pm, however, she was told she wasn't allowed to visit her partner of 24 years - but she was assured he was fine.
The following morning, however, her worst nightmares came true - doctors said Clint was only responding to touch and that a bleed on his brain had continued overnight.
He was taken to intensive care, but Amanda had to make the difficult decision to turn off his life support after 10 days when she was told there was 'no activity' in his brain.
Amanda feels like her last hours with her partner, whom she was planning to marry next year, were taken away from her due to the hospital's decision to bar her from visiting.
She said: "I called at midnight and they said 'he's fine, he's been asking for you quite a lot but he's gone to sleep now', I said 'please can I come and sit with him then'.
How to check your pulse, for risk of stroke
"I just feel like they took that away from me - any time I could have had left with him, they took it away because they told me he was going to be fine."
MORTGAGE WORRIES
To make matters worse, the mortgage on the couple's home was entirely in Clint's name, and the qualified joiner was without life insurance after cancelling it over financial difficulties during the Covid pandemic.
The distraught mum was told her home could face repossession if she is unable to remortgage or pay the home off in full.
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Orphaned at nine years old, Amanda, who works as a teacher trainer, doesn't have any parents she can rely on for financial help.
Now, the single mum, whose children are aged 20, 15, eight, three, one, and five months, has set up an online fundraiser to pay off Clint's mortgage and ensure her children have somewhere to live - something she knows is a tall order.
Writing on the GoFundMe page, she said: "I still can't find the words for what it felt like to stand there holding my children while telling them their daddy was never coming home. I still hear their cries at night. I still can't believe this is real life.
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"Now I'm here, I've given birth to our youngest daughter without him by my side. A single mum with six children — three of them under the age of 3.
"I have a newborn baby in my arms, and I'm trying to hold everyone together with no partner, no parents, no grandparents for my children.
"I can't work right now — I'm home with three babies under three, doing every feed, every bath, every sleepless night alone. And at the same time, I'm trying to grieve a man I can't even begin to live without."
MONEY PLEA
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Amanda has currently raised over £15,000 - a large sum, but under 10 per cent of the target.
She said: "The amount I'm trying to raise is a substantial amount - I don't want anyone to think 'oh, wouldn't we all like our mortgage to be paid'.
"The reason why I've done it is because I think if I died tomorrow then my children have got a home - it would be my oldest daughter who would need to look after them.
"If anything were to happen to me, they would have that security.
I can't work right now — I'm home with three babies under three, doing every feed, every bath, every sleepless night alone. And at the same time, I'm trying to grieve a man I can't even begin to live without
Amanda Conlon
"If everybody just put in £1, if 200,000 people put in £1 that would make all the difference.
"I'm not asking anybody for a large amount, I don't even like asking anybody for anything, but I've always helped people and Clint has always helped people. He always told the children that if anybody needs help, it's really important to help."
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust has been contacted for comment.
What are the symptoms of stroke?
The FAST method – which stands for Face, Arms, Speech, Time – is the easiest way to remember the most common symptoms of stroke:
F = Face drooping - if one side of a person's face is dropped or numb then ask them to smile, if it's uneven then you should seek help.
A = Arm weakness - if one arm is weak or numb then you should ask the person to raise both arms. If one arm drifts downwards then you might need to get help
S = Speech difficulty - if a person's speech is slurred then this could be a sign of a stroke
T = Time to call 999 - if a person has the signs above then you need to call 999 in the UK or 911 in the US for emergency care.
Other symptoms include:
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