'Diabetes hasn't ruined me, it's saved me'

Robyn Goulter discovered she had type 2 diabetes four months after her 45th birthday – and the day after she’d had a stroke. At the time, it was the least of her health concerns, but 10 months later it’s the reason she’s turned her health around

- KAREN FITTALL

“Being asked ‘has someone spoken to you about your diabetes?’ by a doctor as I was lying in a hospital bed was certainly a shock considering I didn’t know I had diabetes, but at the time, I was far more concerned about the stroke I’d just had.

“The day before, I’d woken up with a terrible headache and when my husband Benn came into the room to say goodbye before he headed off to work, I didn’t respond – I couldn’t respond. I could hear everything he was saying but I just couldn’t talk. I’d also dropped something on the floor and while I was convinced I’d picked it up, I hadn’t. It was the scariest moment of my life.

“The night before I’d started getting some numbness in the fingers on my right hand, but I hadn’t really thought anything of it. I’d been lying on the couch watching television so I just assumed I’d been lying in a funny position.

“Benn’s grandma had suffered a few strokes and, being in the army, he’s also well trained in first aid so even though I didn’t have any other stroke symptoms and I could still walk, he knew what had happened.

“When I got to the hospital, an MRI confirmed it. All I could think of was Benn’s grandma. Was this going to be my life now?”

The road to recovery