A Belfast stroke survivor left unable to take her young daughter for a walk last year has celebrated her recovery by stepping over fire to raise £18,000 for charity.
Jennie Wallace was enjoying a busy life as a mother and owner of the Beyond Skin Clinic in Belfast last February when, aged 41, she suffered a stroke in the shower.
After her husband rushed to help her, she spent 10 days in the Royal Victoria Hospital where she required a thrombectomy to remove blood clots and restore blood flow to the brain.
She said the overnight change to her life and health was devastating.
“I had to learn how to walk again and needed a stick. My left arm and shoulder were badly affected. I was impacted cognitively too, and my processing skills were slower,” she said.
Floored by fatigue, she said the normal energetic activities she was used to could leave her in bed for three days.
“It was so hard when my daughter Cleo was asking me, ‘Mummy can we go for a walk’, and I had to say, ‘I’m really sorry, I can’t, my legs are too tired’. That was awful and I hated it.”
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After her statutory rehab, her recovery continued with Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke’s post rehab exercise programme (PREP).
“When I first went, I was really quite low, and my physical side hadn’t really come on a lot,” she said.
The support soon helped her to greatly improve her walking, posture and attitude.
Energised by her recovery, she said the dramatic image of walking on fire after fighting to gain back her mobility seemed perfect.
Using her business contacts to recruit 70 other firewalkers, Jennie was first in line when the day finally arrived.
“After I did it, I felt amazing. I have been walking with a stick since my stroke but that was the first day in over a year that I didn’t use it. I walked across without my stick and was really proud of myself. To have come that far, from not being able to walk, to walking on fire was such an achievement.”
With an original goal of raising £5,000, Jennie said she was delighted with the success and the awareness it had raised that strokes can affect people of any age.
“In my case, I had no underlying health issues - no diabetes, no high blood pressure, nothing,” she said.
“I’m not a smoker, I don’t drink excessively, I’m not a drug taker. Stroke and other kinds of illnesses were just not on my radar. Even when my stroke was happening, I didn’t know what it was. It was only after I woke up post-surgery and noticed a sign on the wall saying, ‘Stroke Ward’ and I thought, ‘What? Have I had a stroke?’ I want to make people aware a stroke can happen to anyone, at any age.”
Further information is available at https://nichs.org.uk/how-you-can-help/fundraise
