'Having a stroke at 26 was massive learning curve'

At 26, Niamh Foster never imagined that she would have a stroke.

With no family history of the disease, the keen runner and former competitive swimmer attributed a month of headaches and fatigue to the stress of moving home and preparing for her busy period at work, London Fashion Week.

But on 28 August 2024, after a night of disturbed sleep, she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and saw that half of her face had drooped downwards.

"I had all of the signs of a stroke," the now 28-year-old said.

Doctors later told her that she had experienced a large ischaemic stroke and 10 transient ischaemic attacks, also known as mini-strokes, in the weeks prior.

Foster, from Wandsworth, said she was in hospital for 10 days, surrounded by her parents, who travelled down from Leicestershire, and her boyfriend Reece.

"It was a massive learning curve for all of us," she said. "Stroke recovery has so many hidden effects.

"I still live with fatigue, memory difficulties and aphasia."

Aphasia is a complex language and communication disorder resulting from damage to the language centres of the brain, and can be caused by a stroke, head injury, brain tumour and other neurological illnesses.

Foster explained how in the days and months that followed, she re-learnt how to walk, talk as she used to, and eventually run.

A hole in her heart was found to be the cause of her stroke and she had heart surgery approximately seven months afterwards.

Eight months after the stroke, and weeks after the surgery, she ran the Manchester Marathon with the support of her sister after receiving medical clearance. Next year she plans to take on the London Marathon with her boyfriend as her support runner.

Foster no longer works in the world of fashion design. After spending a year focused on her recovery, she began a role at The Stroke Association.

"The stroke has given me more purpose," she explained. "I care a lot more about the things that matter and a lot less about the things that don't.

"Now I work with people who have had a stroke but have communication difficulties."

Reflecting on her experience of recovery, she said it was not about returning to normal or "looking better".

"Fatigue was the biggest effect for me," she said. "You can sleep for eight and a half hours and wake up still tired. The brain needs time to recover."

Beyond the physical recovery, Foster said as a young stroke patient, it was hardest "watching everyone carry on with their lives while you are recovering".

"Your 20s are meant to be the time you're living. It feels like it was just stopped for a while," she said.

Foster described herself as a sociable person who now found situations "overwhelming" that she would not have done in the past.

But it was about adapting, she said.

"Being young doesn't mean recovery is easy and you bounce back," she said.

"Recovery isn't linear, it's really tedious."

Foster said she continued to receive support to improve her memory and her arm and hand movements, and explained that therapeutic work helped to "re-teach the brain" what it used to know.

"Stroke can happen at any age," she said. "Finding out why it happened is just as important to understand as recovering."

Charity Different Strokes, which supports young stroke survivors, says more than 100,000 people in the UK have a stroke or mini-stroke every year.

It says most people who have strokes are over 65, but one in four strokes happen in younger people, which equates to almost 40,000 people a year including several hundred children.

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