It Was Kept Secret From Me For Years

It’s a myth that strokes only affect adults – in fact, they remain in the top 10 causes of death in children. Cher Heasmer speaks to a woman who grew up never knowing she’d been a childhood sufferer.

- Cher Heasmer

Strokes are usually associated with the elderly. However, according to the Stroke Association, around five in every 100,000 children in the UK are affected by the condition.

A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. And in children, even mini-strokes – known as transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) – can cause brain injury.

Unlike adults, whose symptoms, such as slurred speech, drooping face and an inability to raise the arms, can be easy to detect, in children the symptoms may not be so immediately obvious. The condition can also affect babies before birth, when it’s known as a fetal stroke.

This was the case for Dawn Minker. The 67-year-old from Sandown, Isle of Wight, had a stroke while she was in her mother’s womb, and her parents made the decision to keep the diagnosis from her.

‘I grew up not having any idea,’ Dawn says. ‘As a baby, I struggled to feed, and when I eventually learnt to talk, I found it difficult to form words. This was due to me having a paralysed tongue – but because my parents never told me about the stroke, I just thought I’d been born different.’