A MOTHER who suffered a stroke aged just 44 has launched a campaign to raise money for the specialist unit which helped her recover.

Deb Little, of Charney Bassett, had run cancer charity fundraising group Passionate Pink since 2002 until she suffered a stroke in March.

She said: “It was like a big, black cloud landing on my head. I was at home making breakfast and had a pain in my back. I didn’t know what was going on and just thought it was a spasm.

“The next thing I realised it was two weeks later and I was in the John Radcliffe stroke unit.”

The mother-of-two was transferred to the Oxford Centre for Enablement at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Headington, where she stayed for two months of intensive therapy to improve her speech, mobility and state of mind.

Still recovering, she has vowed to raise money for Oxford’s “hidden secret”, which each year works to rehabilitate about 9,000 sufferers of brain trauma, muscular disease, amputations and physical disabilities.

“They have given me my life back,” she said.

“I honestly thought that until I was in the OCE, I was never going to be normal again. What I’ve come to realise is that I am, but just a different sort of normal. They have helped me mentally, physically and emotionally and now I can give something back.”

Ms Little, who suffers fatigue and mobility problems, is launching a modelling competition at a friend’s new hair salon to boost the centre’s profile and raise money to help its patients.

A launch party for Matthew Clulee Studio, in St Michael’s Street, Oxford, on November 9 is set to raise more than £1,000.

Customers will be able to enter a modelling competition, set to be judged by model Jilly Johnson and journalist Garry Bushell. Each month’s winner will appear in a fundraising fashion show in April.

Mr Clulee, 41, a childhood friend of Ms Little, will donate cash to the campaign for every customer who visits.

He said: “The reason she’s made such an amazing turnaround is because she’s been supported and encouraged in a safe environment.”

A spokesman for the OCE said: “We are very grateful to Debbie for her fundraising efforts. We hope she is successful.”