Latest news with #strokeawareness
CTV News
5 days ago
- General
- CTV News
N.S. woman who survived five strokes shares the importance of knowing the signs
Crystal Garrett speaks with a stroke survivor about the importance of knowing the signs. A Nova Scotia woman is sharing her story during Stroke Awareness Month in an effort to bust some myths and share some key information that could save lives. One of the misconceptions about strokes is they only happen to older people, but Mandy Grace experienced them when she was just 38. Grace says, while it happened two years ago, it feels almost like yesterday. She woke up a little bit early that day and didn't feel right. 'Something was off. I tried to stand up and I wasn't really able to get out of bed. My dog heard me, thought it was go time, so he came running. I couldn't speak to him or reach out and touch him and I immediately was just like, 'Oh my goodness, what is happening to me?' I didn't really know what to do next,' she told CTV Morning Live's Crystal Garrett. Mandy Grace Mandy Grace is pictured during an interview with CTV Morning Live Atlantic. Grace says she has since learned 911 can find your location, even on a mobile device. However, at the time, she called her best friend who luckily answered her phone and was at her house in 10 minutes taking control of the situation and calling 911. 'Because the quicker you can get treatment, the quicker the response is and the more likely it is that you'll have a good outcome,' Grace says. 'The morning after I was admitted to hospital, a scan showed that I had had five strokes, and I was in hospital for about two weeks.' Grace considered herself a healthy person with no known stroke risks. 'I didn't know there were stroke risks that weren't smoking or high blood pressure. One of the indicators for stroke is actually congenital heart disease and it turned out, little known to me, I had a congenital heart defect that allowed a blood clot to pass into my brain, but I'd been living 38 years without it and I thought I was healthy, but sometimes health is not necessarily what you think it is,' she says. Grace was showing some of the FAST signs, which the Heart and Stroke Foundation shares in an effort to save lives: Face – is it drooping? Arms – can you raise both? Speech – is it slurred or jumbled? Time to call 9-1-1 right away. Heart & Stroke FAST campaign In 2014 Heart & Stroke launched the FAST campaign to help Canadians recognize and remember the most common signs of stroke. (Heart & Stroke) 'If you are in any doubt, or if you see someone that you think might be experiencing signs of stroke, call 911. Lifesaving treatment begins literally the minute you dial and there's no downside. Call,' she says. Grace adds sometimes stroke symptoms in younger patients are attributed to something else. 'Some of the things that happened to me as well, some issues with my vision, the balance, the dizziness, the headache – those are not what you think of when you hear stroke necessarily. FAST are the most common signs and the ones that are most likely to be caused only by stroke, but there certainly are other symptoms and the more awareness the better the outcomes are going to be for us,' she says. Grace considers herself fortunate to have as full of a recovery as she'd had. 'I'm back to work full time, I actually coach at Orangetheory Fitness, I'm very active,' she says. 'But when I'm fatigued I do still have some speech deficits, I still struggle with kind of that brain fog and that cognitive fatigue, but overall I'm incredibly lucky to have recovered as well as I have.' For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
BBC News
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Music gave me my voice back after having a stroke'
The power of music has been credited by a stroke victim for allowing him to recover the use of his Perkins, from Grove in Oxfordshire, was left unable to communicate after falling ill in April former carpenter could not speak due to a condition called aphasia - often caused by brain damage as a result of strokes - that can also impact people's ability to read, write or understand rediscovered his voice through the songs of Elvis Presley, Mr Perkins is now highlighting the positive impact music and singing can have for others like him as part of Stroke Awareness Month. "I was working in Wantage, and [a customer] said to me 'do you want a cup of tea?' and I said 'yes, OK'," the 68-year-old told the BBC."She gave me the cup and I put it down, and next I know I fell straight - I went down."That was the end of me." Mr Perkins said he does not remember anything more until he woke up in hospital three days later unable to speak. He felt like he did not know anything and would have to re-learn basic life skills. "I was a carpenter all my life and now, all of a sudden, I've got to start like a little baby," he said. "I could do talking [in my head] but it wouldn't come out of myself," he said the "terrible" situation left him feeling "useless" and asking "why me?".It was during his time in hospital that Mr Parker's partner, Miriam Doyle, began playing music for said: "He's always loved music of any sort, and so I thought I'd play him music in the background." Two weeks after the stroke and now back at home, Ms Doyle said she spotted Mr Perkins listening to music on an "looked up and saw him mumbling away" to Elvis classic Can't Help Falling in Love. It was the first time Mr Perkins had audibly communicated since the stroke."For both of us there were goosebumps and tears," she said of the Perkins is now able to speak, having had to relearn the alphabet, and attends singing groups with other stroke victims."People really don't know to do some singing, and all of a sudden you start to come into yourself," he said."I still struggle with my speech, but singing has given me the confidence to keep trying."Ms Doyle said she was "immensely proud" of how her partner had "reinvented himself after his stroke"."He'd always been a very shy and unassuming person, but now he's putting himself out there to try and help others and to raise awareness," she added. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
