Health & Wellbeing
Stroke journey heartbreaking and hilarious May is Stroke Awareness Month and Gill Oliver from Sparkford has first-hand knowledge of the effects of this condition after her husband Terry suffered this life changing condition in 2013. Gill shares her story: When my husband Terry had a brain haemorrhage eight years ago, it came completely out of the blue. He counts his blessings that the business meeting that day had been postponed. How much worse would it have been if he’d been far from home, or actually on the road? There was another respect in which we were lucky, too. Unlike families in the covid crisis, I was able to visit him in hospital. Day by day, I grew accustomed to the changes in him, learnt a little of what was happening in his brain and his body; and from day one the brilliant staff trained me to notice the tiny improvements he was making. So by the time he was discharged, I knew he was on an upwards path. And how I could help. It’s often said that every stroke is different; the effects are many and various. But there is a wealth of information and support out there, and that’s why Stroke Awareness Month, championed
details of the support that the Stroke Association can offer, visit stroke.org.uk
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by the Stroke Association, is so important. Whether through the internet or on the ground, the charities have never been more needed. Alongside practical help, MARTIN 63 meet lady 45-70 facts and figures, there are many at Swan, Sturminster Newton personal stories. You can read every Saturday in May ours too, on the website of Headway, the brain injury charity Hi I’m RICHARD, late 70s – with a cheery photo taken seeking ladies for outside Winstone’s Bookshop in relationships. Sherborne! 07811 589712 The professionals say you need two things to make a recovery from stroke: grit, and a sense of HEALTH & WELLBEING humour. Terry had these in spades. We clung to every positive and ADELE CLINCH, ZEN HOUSE grabbed any excuse BSC, HCPC, Life Coaching for a laugh. And registered Do you feel stuck and unable to achieve your potential? some daft things chiropodist/ Are you dreaming of a more fulfilling future? happened. Those podiatrist. 01935 I can help to support you to achieve three steps from sofa your best life on your own terms. 812231 to mantlepiece, the Contact Sarah Eustance on 01258 458340 visits in NW Home or 07743 418233, triumphal realisation Dorset Sherborne or email sarah@sarahjeustance.plus.com he did it Visit www.lifecoachingsolutionsdorset.co.uk
PODIATRY CLINIC ST EDMUNDS Burton Street, Marnhull DT10 1PS NEW CLINIC
automatically it without the Zimmer, the horrible realisation he had no means of getting back… That’s one exploit that did work its way into my second novel, Joe Faber and the Optimists. It was fuelled by the desire to reach out to others in our situation that I set out to write a book about stroke that would be both honest and funny. And while it features some completely made-up characters and situations – a fiddle-playing daughter with a wedding to plan – the stroke, and the ups and downs of those first months of recovery, is faithfully drawn from our own experience, which was heartbreaking and hilarious by turns. Joe Faber and the Optimists is available from independent bookshops, Bookshop.org and Amazon. More details about Gill at gilloliverauthor.com. For
Julie Anne Smith DPodM MCPod hcpc registered Podiatrist T. 01258 821297 E. stedmundspodiatry@gmail.com
sherbornepodiatry.com
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