I felt very tired during my son’s swimming lesson. Thirty minutes later I fell into a coma

But it was easy to make mistakes using the chart, so I quickly memorized the model, and Adam—noticing I was doing this—did the same. While this made our “conversation” more fluid, I struggled hard for months to get some sort of lifestyle back.

After a life-altering trauma like mine, the rehabilitation process takes a long time. And it still continues. I often wanted to scream and yell and give up, but with Adam and Stanley around, thinking about giving up was never an option. Every ounce of my energy was spent moving this body of mine.

I was in hospital for five months, followed by a further six months in a specialist neuro-rehabilitation centre. I had to learn again everything – walking, talking, even swallowing and breathing. I finally moved back home in October 2022, and returning to staggered working hours in the summer last year was a huge success. I’m a public health expert working for the council and I work mainly on initiatives to get people active. Yes, irony. I remind myself that the advantage of this is that I can now bring my own lived experience to the role. I’m passionate about advancing research into why strokes happen through charities such as Our Future Health.

The man kept a small tally on the kitchen chalkboard for each of the 316 days until he came home after his stroke. He was an incredible husband, but of course our relationship has changed dramatically since he became my caregiver. She works full time for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and also does everything for me and Stanley. We have to spend so much time together that we no longer have the space (or disconnect from each other) that couples need, which naturally means we may argue. There may be times when my instincts want to ignore him for a while, but I can’t because then I’ll have to text him upstairs and ask him to take me to the bathroom or wash me or dress me. This rather changes the situation dynamics of a marriage.