Make sure no-one has to recover alone

Every day people are leaving hospital after a stroke scared and on their own. Your donation will mean no-one has to recover alone.

“Watching my mum take her last breath was the most painful experience of my life”

Michelle and her mum both had strokes within days of each other. Michelle survived, but tragically her mum didn’t. When she came home from hospital she felt completely alone.

Your donation will make sure that Michelle, and other stroke survivors, are never alone. Here she explains how your donation can change everything.

I was lucky enough to be with my mum when stroke took her life.

I held her hand while she lay quiet and still, unconscious in the hospital bed.

I kissed her forehead and told her how much I loved her as she slipped away from me. I hope it was a comfort to her, even if she didn’t know I was there.

The pain of losing my mum cut me to my core. She was the most special person and we did everything together.

I sat in the hospital bed struggling to move or speak, trapped in the pain and absolute grief of losing my mum.

I didn’t know how I would cope without mum in my life or if I had the strength to get better.

I felt like giving up. And then I met Claire from Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland.

She is one of the charity’s Hospital to Home support workers. I first met her on the hospital ward

I told her about losing mum just days after my stroke. The pain just came flooding out.

“You’re funding the most important person in my life right now”

I felt guilty that my mum had died, that I wasn’t there for her when she needed me most.

Claire understood what I was going through and made me feel like my life wasn’t over. I found just speaking to her helped a lot. It gave me hope.

After nearly a fortnight in hospital, I was discharged early to go to mum’s funeral.

Saying a final goodbye to mum that day was so hard.

I came back to an empty home that we shared together just weeks before. All I had were the memories we shared in that house.

Our photos of special occasions on the wall, her empty room that still had her clothes, her comforting smell.

“Because of you I am not alone”

When I felt at my lowest after leaving hospital, Claire was there for me. 

She came to my house every week to check I was okay and help with my speech and my walking.

If I needed her, she was always there for me. She got me on my feet again and gave me confidence in myself that I never thought possible.

When lockdown struck, I couldn’t see anyone. I was trapped in my house. But Claire remembered me.

Claire called me every week. Hearing her voice on the end of the phone is what kept me going during my darkest days.

And when I was running out of food, through the charity’s Kindness Volunteers, Claire made sure I got weekly shopping dropped off at my door.

Claire is one of the most important people in my life right now.

Like my mum, Claire is someone I will never forget. She makes my life worth living and her kindness saved me.

Your donations fund Claire’s work. Because of you, I am not alone.

I don’t know where I would be without Claire. She has been there for me throughout everything and that is thanks to you.

Please give what you can to make sure no one is forgotten.

Thank you,
Michelle

Make sure no-one has to recover alone

“Watching my mum take her last breath was the most painful experience of my life”

You have the power to make sure no one is forgotten.