Actress Pauline McLynn has told of her heartache after she ignored a phone call from paramedics calling from her father's phone after he had a stroke at work.
The Father Ted star – famed for her role as Mrs Doyle in the Channel 4 series - revealed her father Padraig died 17 years ago when he was just 69 years old after suffering a stroke while at work in the west of Ireland.
Pauline opened up about her heartbreak after she ignored a call from her father's phone by the paramedics who were at the scene treating him.
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She said: "I actually saw a call coming in from him on his phone and I was actually off to meet somebody for lunch. They wanted a pep talk about something, so I didn’t answer it.
"It was actually the people who were with him just pressed the last call that he made, and they rang me. I wasn’t the one who took the call.
"It was one of those things," she said.
Pauline told how her father was selling cars around the west of Ireland when the fatal incident occurred. He was taken to Castlebar Hospital, where he died 10 days later.
"He was brought to Castlebar Hospital where he was minded like a newborn until 10 days later, he shuffled off. There was no saving him. They did everything for him.
"It was kind of like his electrics had short-circuited. The rest of him was in fabulous order. He had a 10-day rest.
"His sleep... you wouldn’t believe it. He looked fabulous when we were seeing him off. The rest of us looked wrecked."
Last year, Pauline suffered another blow after her mother Sheila also suffered a stroke and died.
"I think though here we are 17 years later before Christmas my mum who had different things wrong with her, we thought we’d have her for longer, but we didn’t think that this would be how we’d lose her.
"She had some very slow-moving cancers. She wasn’t taking any treatment for that because she reckoned that her life would be at 86, she just reckoned that for the amount of not feeling great that she would have to go through and also as she said herself ‘I’m not a young person’.
"They were very slow moving but she fell and broke her hip while being really careful in the house. Just moving from one chair to the next to have her dinner and she broke the hip. Had an operation for that, that was an entire success.
"It was healing beautifully. She was in the hospital about to go into rehab. There was a big Covid outbreak in the ward she was in but that didn’t get her.
"In the end and we weren’t expecting this, it was a massive stroke."
Pauline said she knew she wanted to get involved with the Irish Heart Foundation to raise awareness for the early signs and symptoms of a stroke.
The Galway-raised star, who was speaking at an event at Dublin Castle, on Tuesday, said: "The FAST message is simple and I’d like to think, if my name is on one, that there will be someone close by who will know what to do.
"It is just reminding people to think that way if they have any suspicions – it’s better to be safe than sorry, and time is the one to remember."
Figures from the Irish National Audit of Stroke (Inas) report published last week show that only 46 per cent of stroke patients arrive at hospital within the recommended three-hour window – down from 59 per cent nine years ago.
The report analysed the data of 34,630 stroke patients admitted to hospital between 2013 and 2021.
It showed there was a 23 per cent increase in stroke admissions with a reduction in the proportion of patients aged 80 and older and an increase in patients aged 64 and younger.
There was an increase in the proportion of patients who suffered a stroke being discharged home with early supports, from 2 per cent in 2017 to 10 per cent in 2021, but this is well below the 46 per cent reported in the UK.
Pauline said: "It was a sign to get involved (in this campaign).
"You can have a stroke at any age. It’s not an age discriminatory thing so it is essential that people know. It’s a really positive thing to be saying to people.
"Time is of the essence. It is a really empowering thing for people that can do more than you imagine by just acting quickly.
"I think mam would be delighted in some way that there is attention being shone on this."
But she said she still has "dark moments" where she misses her parents.
"I still have my dark moments. You know all of these cruises you see on TV, I keep thinking ‘oh she’d love that’… She liked travelling on cruises.
"And every time I see it, I think, ‘oh mam would love that’ or if I’ve a bit of news I think, ‘Oh I have to ring her’.
"Obviously my dad is dead 17 years but if he walked around the corner, I would say ‘ah howiya, there you are.’
"It's just time is a very bendy thing in my world. I say 17 years but if I was told ‘it’s eight years or five’ I would say, ‘yeah you’re right.’
"Maybe it’s a showbiz thing because you kind of measure your life in how many jobs a year sort of that you do."
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