A local woman who survived stroke twice spoke to the Advertiser to highlight the devastating effects of the medical emergency.

Jennifer Davies (59), from Alloa talked about the difficult times after her first stroke, which happened seven years ago and completely changed her life. As The Stroke Association looks for inspiring stroke survivors to speak out ahead of for their national awards ceremony, Jennifer said her story should serve as both a warning and as an example.

Jennifer worked as a nurse for a number of years and was a heavy smoker – on a “bad day” going through 40 to 60 cigarettes. Her smoking and the stress of working as a nurse as well as her husband being diagnosed with terminal cancer all contributed to what she fell victim to – high blood pressure.

She said: “Even though I was a smoker, they said it was the stress and high blood pressure that caused the stroke. High blood pressure is a silent killer. You are walking around you don’t even know you have it.” “When I had my first stroke I couldn’t dress myself, I couldn’t hold cutlery properly, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t do daily tasks. I had to retrain myself to do all these things.

“My speech was affected, I’ve been left with speech problems especially if I get anxious or nervous it gets worse. My memory has been affected big time. I literally forget everything. It is hard to get through to people, even family. They just can’t believe you’ve forgotten something five to 10 minutes later.” Jennifer advises that everyone, including young people, should get their blood pressure checked regularly.

There are around 1.2 million stroke survivors living in the UK and the Life After Stroke Awards aims to celebrate them and the thousands of carers and volunteers who support them. Recovery can take several years and the Stroke Association aims to help sufferers through that period.

Jennifer, who visited a variety of stroke groups and even volunteered with the charity, said: “When I first had my stroke I went to training doing home helps. I’ve done quite a lot over the last seven years, I’ve volunteered to do BPs with different functions and I’ve been to conferences.” She explained that above all, support from family is most valuable.

Jennifer explained: “My son and daughter couldn’t do enough for me. When I had the stroke they were completely devastated. My daughter lived down in England and she was very anxious because she couldn’t be with me. My son did everything he could for me.” She added her husband also helped a lot saying: “We really pulled together at that point. I miss him so much. It wasn’t the cancer that killed him, he actually fell down the stairs.” As with many patients, she also fell victim to depression. From her experience as a nurse she knew that she had to keep trying to recover and not lie down too much.

She added: “You might not get back to what you were, but if you get half your life back – half is better than nothing and nothing is what you’ve got when you had a stroke.”