It seems funny to appear in what used to be my newspaper for five years. The reason - not so funny. January this year I had a mini-stroke which left me paralysed on my right side. The consultants couldn't account for the reason as I have low blood pressure (around 125/80 and low cholestrol (around 2) also I don't smoke and rarel drink alcohol.
So they linked it to Lupus. The stroke has affected my memory, my speech (especially when tired - not so much the way I speak but I get words muddled up and use the wrong names for things), my vision in my right eye became much worse and my tinnitus increased.
Luckily I regained use of my limbs within 24 hours. I was then fortunate enough to join North Norfolk Different Strokes (http://www.differentstrokes.co.uk/) - we are a unique bunch of people all who have had some form of stroke or brain injury and range from the reasonably able to those that need constant care. In this photo we (Sandra on the left - co-founder, Hazel (everything else) and I (general catsbody) are at the Burlington Hotel receiving funding from Sheringham Carnival Committee.
Also there were the local branches of Alzheimer's Socieity, St John's, Salvation Army, Excel 2000 and, of course, our current Carnival Queen and her Princesses (Felicity Farraway and her attendants Tisha West and Aneliese Smith).
