Land’s End to John o’Groats before 40
This walk didn’t start because of a stroke. I’d wanted to walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats for years, and my plan was to do it before I turned 40.
Then, in February 2022, I had two strokes. Forty came and went. The ambition didn’t. Now I’m aiming to do it before I’m 50 — and raising awareness of strokes gives a dream I already had some extra purpose.
The day everything shifted
As I remember it
I remember going for a drink with friends and feeling like my head was going to fall off. The next thing I clearly remember is waking up in hospital and being told I’d had a stroke.
I was sent home around a day later, by taxi. Later I went back to hospital, and was told I’d had another stroke.
I spent around three months on Felix Holt Ward at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton. That was during COVID restrictions.
Learning to trust the path again
- I kept my speech and my mobility, but recovery still meant headaches, frustration, and techniques I learned through occupational health.
- I have permanent loss of my far-left peripheral vision. At first I used walls and objects on my left as guides.
- Then I made myself stop using them, and practised walking unaided — building my confidence back up, step by step.
- Nearly four years on, I’d describe myself as around 97–98% recovered. That’s my own sense of it, not a medical measurement — and the vision loss is still there.
This is my personal story and how I remember it. It isn’t medical advice.