Patient stories
Following the life-threatening experiences of contracting COVID-19, having a stroke and then living with Long COVID, James is being supported in rebuilding his life by the QEF Care and Rehabilitation Centre. Here, he shares his story
“On Christmas Eve I felt bad, I passed out and they called an ambulance out. They took me into East Surrey hospital, checked my sats, gave me oxygen and when my sats improved I went back home. But the next day it happened again, I passed out and they took me to A&E, then a respiratory ward. I didn’t make any improvement, so a bed was prepared for me on ICU, where they put me on a ventilator that saved my life. I remained in ICU at East Surrey Hospital for a further two weeks until I was stable enough to be moved. During this time, it was uncertain if I would survive. I was airlifted to the Lane Fox Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital In London, in the same ward where Boris Johnson the Prime Minister was treated. I stayed on a ventilator there for four weeks.
A dedicated daughter is attempting a three-peak challenge in memory of her mother, to raise funds to fight for improved understanding of acquired brain injury. In July 2000, Anita Pascoe’s 54-year-old mum, Ann, collapsed following a brain haemorrhage and she remained severely brain injured until her death earlier this year. “We had a journey together [...]
An eight-year-old boy has rallied his family to join him on a 330-mile charity challenge to safeguard a life-changing spinal cord injury rehabilitation programme which has supported him.
Jasper Thornton-Jones was paralysed aged two after a spinal stroke. Key to his rehabilitation therapy since then has been the Neurokinex Charitable Trust, based near Gatwick. Jasper was the first paediatric client at Neurokinex when he started there in September 2016 on its Step Up Scheme. The initiative has proved life-changing for many patients, and offers a set of six free rehab sessions for adults and children with a new spinal cord injury. The scheme costs the Neurokinex Charitable Trust £420 per person to fulfil and relies on funding for its survival.
Having finally felt comfortable in his own skin after undergoing gender transition to become the man he wanted to be, Chris, aged only 25, was then confronted with a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Here, he shares his inspirational story of overcoming challenges, being positive and living life to the full with the support of both the MS and LGBTQ+ communities Having transitioned to becoming a man, which was the point I finally discovered who I am, I hoped it would be the joyous start of a new chapter in my life I always imagined it would be. But while going through the process, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Aged only 25, this wasn’t how I had imagined my new chapter would start.
Music lover and folk artist Duncan Whitehurst has been in the music industry for a number of decades now.
He spent much of the 90s enjoying a lot of success with his band The Rain Kings and now plays in his family band Lucky 12. Duncan performs with an acoustic guitar, while his wife Rebecca plays the violin with their son Harry on the drums and friend Jack Deere-Jones on double bass. The group has enjoyed a lot of success in the UK folk scene in recent years, but only came about after Duncan took an extended absence from music.
A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis is often a life changing event, with huge worries and concerns being overriding emotions for those who are told they have the condition.
This was exactly the case for 30-year-old Annie, who found out she had MS just weeks before she discovered she was pregnant with her first child. For years she had been suffering with fatigue and tiredness, but despite spending hours doing her own research she could not work out what was causing it. After numerous hospital visits, she was given a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, although Annie said she ‘never really felt like that was the correct diagnosis’ for her. It would take a strange coincidence for her to eventually discover the problem, after she got a fly stuck in her eye in June 2020.
A former RAF serviceman with motor neurone disease (MND) is ticking one thing off his bucket list to raise money for charity as he completes a skydive.
51-year-old Lez Wainwright was diagnosed with the condition in February and began thinking about all the things he wanted to do in life. One of these is a skydive and even though he had served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) for nine years, it is something he has never done before. “After my diagnosis I decided to do a bucket list,” he said. “A skydive was one of the things I’ve always wanted to do. “Originally I was too scared but I thought now is my chance to get it out the way with and get it done.”
55-year-old Pauline Price was working on the COVID ward at Sunderland Royal Hospital when she noticed she was feeling unwell.
Following the correct protocol, she quickly got tested and found out she had contracted the virus, resulting in her taking three weeks off work and losing her sense of smell and taste. In the midst of the pandemic, Pauline returned to work, stepping up to help her fellow NHS workers who were already stressed and tired because of the huge workload necessitated by the pandemic.
When Rolf Zartner experienced three strokes in March last year, followed by a devastating fourth after life-saving surgery, he was given - at best - a five per cent chance of survival. But Rolf, a managing director at Deutsche Bank in London and lover of extreme fitness challenges, would not be written off so easily.
From the point of him waking from more than three weeks in a coma, he resolved this would not be the reality for him, and began to plan for a future as full as his life was until March 21, 2020. And on March 21 this year - a year to the day that stroke struck - he ran a half-marathon, having pursued a punishing neurorehabilitation and training regime which begun even while he was still in hospital. 
After Vasili Kalisperas was born a healthy baby, his jaundice was left undetected by midwives and led to him being left with cerebral palsy and needing round-the-clock care. Here, his mum Elena discusses the huge mental health challenges of being a parent in such a position and how she learned to admit it’s OK not to be OK
I’ve always been a very optimistic and positive person, which I do think helps during such traumatic times, but that’s definitely not to say it hasn’t been a struggle. As equipped as you might be in terms of your outlook on life to deal with challenges, when something so traumatic happens to you, it is of course going to be a struggle to come to terms with that.
