Different Strokes
To add to the publicity surrounding last week, Different Strokes added my blog to the Helping Each Other section of their website.
Different Strokes is a charity set up by younger stroke survivors to offer support to younger stroke survivors, at a time when most of the services available were aimed at the elderly.
In hospital after my stroke I felt very isolated until I found a Different Strokes leaflet which gave me a great sense of relief to know that I was not the only stroke survivor under 70!
Later I was a member of the Coventry Different Strokes exercise class. Their help included therapies such as massage, physiotherapy and always a tea break giving opportunities for general chats with other attendees with different experiences. The organiser, Irene, had an impressive, comprehensive and wide-ranging list of help that was available.
Because I was a member of this class, I found out about Conductive Education, which was instrumental in my recuperation and without it I would not be able to take part in this race.
Irene was also very interested in helping carers. The first time that Anita attended
an exercise class, she went off to have blood pressure checks etc. Irene then ensured that I was OK as she recognised the stresses that carers have. Irene (and Different Strokes) cared, not just for Anita, but the whole family. This helped ALL of us.
Different Strokes (and us as well) were instrumental in the FAST (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) campaign.http://www.nhs.uk/actfast/Pages/stroke.aspx