A THURROCK woman has bravely spoken up and take a leading role in promoting a new service for people feeling lonely and isolated after having suffered a stroke.

Jade Apperley was the victim of a stroke when she was just 21 in 2015. Five years on she is telling of her experience as part of the Stroke Association's new 'Here For You' telephone service campaign.

Launched this week the new service helps combat loneliness and isolation by providing stroke survivors and their carers with regular telephone support and the charity plans to offer this vital support to more stroke survivors and also attract more volunteers to help rebuild lives after stroke.

Prior to her stroke, Jade had been having severe headaches which had got more and more intense. When Jade started having a seizure, her mum called an ambulance.

Jade said: "My stroke completely came out of nowhere. The doctors seemed to have no idea what was wrong with me at first and I was completely out of it – I felt like a lost a week. When I woke up I didn't even recognize the new tattoo that I had just had done a week or so before."

Jade had actually had a rare stroke that was caused by a clot in her sinuses and a bleed on her brain at the same time. Since leaving hospital Jade has also been diagnosed with epilepsy and will always have to be on blood thinners.

Jade said: "Initially I felt like my whole life had been taken over by appointments. It's also left with me bad anxiety and made me feel petrified to be on my own in case something happens but thankfully this has now improved after therapy."

Valuable support

While previously working at an estate agency, Jade has now started training to be a speech and language therapist, after seeing it at work during her rehabilitation. She sees this and joining the Here for You campaign, as two positive things to come from her stroke.

Jade said: "I so wish I knew about the Stroke Association at the time of my stroke. Working as a volunteer for Here for You has taught me how valuable support after having a stroke is – I wish I had had that.

"I have been volunteering for six weeks now and it's amazing how quickly you bond with the people you speak to. It now feels like talking to a friend and as a stroke survivor, I think you both get something out of it.

"I would recommend using the Here for You service to anyone that's going through a stroke whatever your age, old or young. Everyone has different experiences of stroke and it's important to share them. I would also recommend it to anyone that knows a loved one that's had a stroke, it really does help to share."

Kaye Adams, host of ITV's Loose Women, is throwing her support behind the support service. Her mum had two strokes in 2018 and said: "Stroke is a cruel condition that turns lives upside down in an instant. When my mum had a stroke our whole family's lives changed forever. The thought of that happening during lockdown is just unbearable.

"I can only imagine how scary it must feel for survivors and their loved ones. Having someone to talk things through, especially as people struggle to come to terms with what's happened to them, is vital. The Stroke Association's new 'Here for You' service offers real hope to people as they cope with the impact of stroke on their lives. That's why I'm proud to support this amazing charity and their work."

Stroke survivors and their carers can sign up for a half hour phone call, weekly, for 12 weeks with a trained Stroke Association volunteer.

The coronavirus pandemic has meant that all 215 Stroke Association Groups have been unable to meet, denying stroke survivors the vital peer to peer support for over four months now. The charity is still unsure when these groups will be able to start up their face-to-face meetings again.

The 'Here for You' service offers two kinds of support:

• 'Lived Experience' telephone volunteers who have experienced stroke themselves and can connect with recent stroke survivors and help them talk through the challenges they are facing.

• 'Connect and Chat' volunteers who can talk and offer an empathetic ear to stroke survivors who are experiencing loneliness and isolation and would welcome a friendly voice for a weekly chat.

To sign up to Here for You if you're feeling lonely, isolated and in need of a chat, or to volunteer visit the Stroke Association website or call the Stroke Helpline: 0303 3033 100.

Volunteers are expected to make one, 30 minute phone call per week for twelve weeks and also to attend a two hour online training session delivered by the Stroke Association. While people need to have experience of stroke personally or as a carer to undertake the lived experience telephone support volunteer role, the 'Connect and Chat' volunteer role is open to anyone regardless of stroke experience.

Juliet Bouverie, Here for You volunteer and Chief Executive of the Stroke Association, said: "No stroke survivor should feel alone as every stroke survivor deserves the best chance with their recovery. I'm a volunteer supporting two stroke survivors around the UK.

"I look forward to our weekly calls and we get on really well. It's so rewarding to know that I can make a direct positive impact on someone's life. Each week I notice how their confidence and speech are improving and I'm also learning new ways of getting better at supporting them too. It makes a difference to my mood and well-being too.

"Demand for the service is already huge and we urgently need more volunteers. You don't need to be a stroke survivor to volunteer. You'll be helping people in the early days after their stroke or stroke survivors who may be feeling lonely or isolated and just in need of a chat."

For more information on how to access the service or to volunteer, click here.