'My stroke felt like being struck by lightning'

A woman from Leicestershire who had a stroke in her 40s has said it was like being struck by lightning.

Hayley Fern, from Hugglescote, was 48 years old when she woke up and was unable to see or move properly.

Ms Fern said she had to learn to take things slowly during her recovery and now wants to raise awareness of strokes.

She added: "I've got a bit of sensory overload with most things, and it's a case of being gentle with myself."

Hayley, who works as an art teacher at Rawlins Academy in Loughborough, said she realised something was wrong as soon as she woke up on 31 October last year.

She said: "I tried to look at my phone and my eyes were just jumping around. As I tried to get up, I realised I had no balance at all, it was like the whole room was moving."

After making her way downstairs from her bedroom, Hayley, now 49, was found passed out on her sofa by her husband Ciaran.

She was temporarily unable to talk, and the left side of her face had drooped.

Ciaran called his cousin, who lives nearby and works as an A&E nurse, and they spoke to paramedics over the phone while waiting for an ambulance.

Hayley had suffered an ischaemic stroke and underwent months of testing as doctors tried to understand what had caused it, but she never got any answers.

"It was a bit like being struck by lightning, I went from being really busy with a full-time job and doing all my hobbies and then suddenly absolutely nothing," she said.

"There was no previous symptoms and I'd generally got a healthy lifestyle. I think it was just one of those things and the more people I've spoken to, the more that seems to be the case."

The stroke affected the left side of Hayley's body, including her eyesight, hearing, and the feeling in her hand and foot. She's also struggled with her balance since, so uses a walking stick to help her get around.

She said: "My brain is trying to make loads of new signals going around the blood clot, so I'm kind of proud of that and I think it's an amazing thing that your body just adapts.

"I was lucky it was my left-hand side that was affected because I'm very right-handed. As an artist and a teacher, to be able to still draw and paint and write has given me so much hope."

Hayley now wants to raise awareness of the condition, and how it can affect anyone, at any time.

"I think we all have an image of a stroke, that it should be someone older. Also, people have been a bit cautious about seeing me, not knowing what I'm going to look like, and then they're really surprised that I look quite well," says Hayley.

"I want people to know about the invisible effects of it. For me, it's dizziness, lethargy, the fact that I'll do something for a couple of hours and have no energy left. To navigate what this means for me physically and mentally will be a big part of moving forward."

Outside of teaching art, Hayley had set herself a challenge to paint all 310 churches in her local diocese to raise awareness of their beauty. She says she's now determined to get back to work, and complete her painting challenge.

"It was about four months after my stroke when I started to get that little itch, that motivation to have a go," says Hayley.

"Once I was drawing again, I was just over the moon. That was the first thing that made me feel like me."

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