'I'm glad my stroke happened, I wouldn't change it'

A dad-of-two who suffered a life-changing stroke last year has said he is glad that it happened.

Tim Jacobs, from Worcester, was left unable to walk or speak following a haemorrhagic stroke, also known as a bleed on the brain.

The 40-year-old, originally from the Netherlands, added that prior to his stroke, he had always struggled with anxiety and depression, which he described as "on and off".

"Don't get me wrong, it wasn't fun but the anxiety and the depression went away."

Despite continuing to live with the effects of the stroke, he said the experience gave him a "different appreciation for life".

"This might sound strange but before my stroke I was really anxious and depressed but that all went away while I was in the hospital because I was alive," he explained.

"If I could take a medicine to have my body healed again then I would take it but I wouldn't reverse it," he added.

"I'm glad that it happened and the experience it brought me. I think I'll gain more than I've lost."

Jacobs' stroke happened in April 2025 while he was visiting family for his birthday.

"My hand just stopped working. I knew instantly something was wrong. I made my way downstairs and said to my dad, 'This isn't right. Ring an ambulance now.'"

Within 10 minutes, he couldn't walk. He couldn't talk, he explained.

At the hospital, a CT scan revealed the cause - a large haemorrhagic stroke, a bleed on the brain, which was caused by an undetected birth defect.

He spent nine days in intensive care, and nine more on the neurology ward.

"I had no idea what my future looked like," Jacobs admitted. "I lay in a hospital bed, unable to walk, unable to speak, unable to write.

"My dominant hand no longer worked. Words were trapped in my mind. It was horrible."

Jacobs developed aphasia, a condition that makes it difficult to communicate, and later apraxia, a speech disorder that still affects him today.

He said: "My thoughts are clear, but my speech is out of sync. It's slow. It's hard."

To communicate, he had to relearn everything, writing with his left hand on a whiteboard, one word at a time.

Seven months after his stroke, Jacobs returned home.

He credits his family as the driving force behind his recovery and said one of his hardest moments had been seeing them leave for their home in Worcestershire while he was confined to a Dutch hospital bed.

"That was one of the hardest moments," he said.

"Not knowing when I'd see them again, but I knew why I was doing it. I had to get better", he added.

My drive to recover came from wanting to be the best husband, father and friend I could be."

Jacobs said one of the biggest misconceptions about stroke recovery was that it was a quick fix.

"People say you recover in six months. That's not true. It takes longer. But one day, you'll look back and you'll be amazed how far you've come.

"My right arm isn't great, but God gave us a spare," he added.

"My perspective has changed - at the end of the day, I'm still alive. I believe there was a plan for me and I'm grateful it happened when it did, not when I was driving or completely alone."

He added: "A stroke doesn't mean your life is over, it just means you have to fight for it in a different way."

Jacobs is now raising awareness as part of the Stroke Association's 'Survival Is Not Enough' campaign.

He said if he can help one person with their recovery journey, it would make speaking out about his experience worthwhile.

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