INCREDIBLE as it sounds, more than 10,000 people in Oxfordshire are currently living with the effects of a stroke.

But the number of people directly affected is many times greater, with family members and carers all caught up in the devastation that a stroke can bring.

The term ‘stroke’ describes a loss of brain function due to a blood clot or bleed in the brain. In 2007/08, there were 605 emergency admissions to the Oxfordshire Radcliffe Hospitals Trust.

The condition can strike at any time, and affects men and women of any age.

Suzanne Dance, from Wantage, was just 34 when she suffered a stroke. She was also seven months’ pregnant.

She said: “I have lupus and was having blood platelet treatment in the Silver Star ward of the John Radcliffe Hospital when I suffered a stroke.”

The former sewing machinist remembers little of what happened next.

She had been due to have her baby induced 26 days later, but her traumatised husband David, 37, her mum Mary Golding, 60, and her son Bailey, then two, could only watch helplessly as doctors revealed she was paralysed down her right side and could not speak.

Mrs Golding said: “I was sitting by her bedside, holding her hand and I couldn’t speak either. We had no history of stroke in the family and although Suzanne had problems throughout this and her earlier pregnancy because of her lupus, none of us could take in what had happened to her.”

More shocks were to come just 10 days later when Suzanne went into labour.

She said: “I still couldn’t speak or move properly. My spleen was causing me terrible problems and then the baby started coming and the doctors said I would need an emergency Caesarian.”

Hayden was born prematurely, weighing just 4.5lb, but needed only a short spell in the special care baby unit.

Mrs Dance said: “Hayden was in hospital with me for five weeks, but I could not care for him. David and my mum had to do mostly everything. The only thing I could manage was to prop him up on my paralysed right arm and try to feed him with my left.”

Mrs Golding said: “Over the next year as Suzanne had intensive physio and speech therapy, David, myself and David’s mum worked in shifts to care for her and the two children. It was exhausting and a bit of blur for all of us.”

Suzanne has made a good recovery but has still been left with no movement in her right arm, a limp, and speech problems.

Her mum said: “She becomes very frustrated when she cannot explain what she wants sometimes. She can now care for her family but the stroke had a huge effect on her and all of us.”

Suzanne, now 37 said: “I feel very lucky that I survived.

“I do wish that I could have the use of my right arm back of course, but I am coping with the help of my family and I’m very glad there is a stroke campaign in the news. People need to be aware of how fast it can strike and that it can affect anyone. I never dreamed it would be me.”

Oxfordshire PCT has joined a three-year nationwide campaign to promote public awareness.

The Department of Health initiative centres on FAST – which stands for Face, Arm, Speech, Time to call 999 – and is a simple test to help people recognise the signs of stroke and understand the importance of fast treatment.

Kevan Hall, 71, of Abingdon, knows only too well the importance of FAST.

His quick-thinking actions probably saved his wife Beryl’s life, when she suffered a stroke a year ago.

Mr Hall, a retired Didcot Power Station worker, said: “It was a Sunday night and we were sitting listening to the radio when I asked Beryl a question and she didn’t answer me.

“I asked her again and she still didn’t answer. Then I noticed her eyes had glazed and she had gone a funny colour.

“I don’t know why, but straight away I feared she was having a stroke. I called my daughter and within 15 minutes Beryl was in an ambulance on the way to the JR. They did a scan and confirmed a stroke and gave her a new drug the doctor called a Clot Buster.

“Later that night the circulation started coming back to her hands and although she was still drawling her speech, the next day she was moving her hands.”

Mrs Hall said: “The day of the stroke was ordinary. We’d had a family barbecue and I’d been shopping. When it happened I could hear Kevan talking to me, I just couldn’t talk back and though I tried to lift my leg, it wouldn’t move off the floor. It was very frightening.

“I had no history of strokes, but I did have high blood pressure.

“Our GP has since called me a miracle because of my recovery, but it was all down to quick action and the right drugs.”

dwaite@oxfordmail.co.uk