Tango-Tiger

'I thought strokes only happened to elderly people'



Kayleigh Trainor was 27 when she had a stroke "completely out of the blue".

"I woke up and was getting ready for work when I looked in the mirror and noticed there was a drop in my face.

"I thought nothing of it and drove myself to work, and it wasn't until I got there that other people were asking me if I was OK.

"I went to the chemist thinking I'd had an allergic reaction but the pharmacist was really concerned and told me to go to A&E," she says.

The teacher, who lives in Harlow, went to hospital "believing it was an overreaction" and "apologised for wasting everyone's time".

But she was shocked to discover she was not wasting anyone's time at all.

"I was rushed through, with doctors monitoring me and tests carried out. I was told I had had a stroke," says Miss Trainor, now 32.

"I was a little bit in disbelief because to me I felt OK. I associated strokes with elderly people, I thought I couldn't have had a stroke."

She adds: "You think you're exempt to these things but it can happen to anyone of us at any stage of life."

Miss Trainor, who is originally from County Armagh, went back home for 10 days while she recovered from the brain injury in November 2015.

The assistant headteacher at Forest Hall School in Stansted says she has had no symptoms since and medics never established what led to her stroke.

Her grandfather previously had a stroke and doctors told her it could have been caused by stress but there was nothing they "could pinpoint to say that was the cause of it".

Miss Trainor, who recently raised £1,400 for the Stroke Association by walking 1.2 million steps over 120 days, says there needs to be more awareness of the risk to young people.

"I tell my pupils at school I had a stroke and they say 'no you didn't, old people have them' and I tell them anyone can have a stroke," she says.

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