HAVING undergone one myself at the beginning of the year, may I express my gratitude for your coverage of strokes, a subject often neglected in the media in comparison with other illnesses.

I was fortunate in so far as my own experience was relatively mild, little more than a mini-stroke, there being some suggestion even, as I was already showing signs of improvement by the time the ambulance arrived, that visiting hospital, let alone remaining overnight, might not be necessary. As it turned out, virtual, if not total, recovery took about five days, my remaining in the John Radcliffe for a fortnight being chiefly attributable to a chronic illness flaring up.

I was praised on several occasions for swiftly dialling 999.

Having suffered from atrial fibrillation for several years, I knew that the chances of my having a stroke were statistically higher than normal.

Even so, I tended to believe that it would never actually happen, or at least, not yet.

Although most of my fellow patients were older than I was, the average age for a first occurrence is decreasing.

There is certainly no room for complacency, even if advances are being made.

Apart from the shock, arising from the suddenness of the onset of the illness, some victims become embittered, frustrated and humiliated by their relatively slow rate of progress, failing to grasp entirely that all such attacks are idiosyncratic and they are not participating in a race.

Let it be hoped that your drawing attention to this matter will help those currently experiencing socio-economic hiccoughs to get their own misfortunes into proportion.

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford