A mum who dismissed symptoms including grogginess as a hangover was later f ound to have had a stroke and spent a month in hospital.
Francesca Murray, 45, woke up feeling ill after a night out celebrating a friend’s upcoming wedding which had been postponed owing to Covid.
Thinking it was the after effects of a fun evening, she had a painkiller and went back to bed.
Later, when she started slurring her words, pal and bride-to-be Natasha called 999 and Francesca was airlifted to Cork University Hospital.
Francesca told Grimsby Live : “We had a session in her house in Ventry and went to bed.
"I got up, felt a little groggy and decided to have a painkiller and went back to bed.
“Even getting sick a short time later was no different to a bad hangover.
“I couldn’t speak, I had right-side paralysis and couldn’t move, I couldn’t swallow, had to be spoon-fed and had a catheter in.
“I remember the doctors around the bed saying I had had a stroke. It was horrible. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
“It gave me a whole different outlook on life."
Francesca spent the next month working with the stroke and physiotherapy teams as she rebuilt her strength and underwent speech therapy whilst battling extreme fatigue.
She was later transferred to St James’s in Dublin and now only relies on medication as part of her recovery.
Two years on from the incident in June 2020, Francesca is preparing to take on a mini-marathon to raise money for the health teams who helped her recovery.
Francesca added: “I don’t think I understood the severity of it.
"They had me walking from one end of the bed to the other, then progressing to the corridor.
"I’d only manage a few steps before I had to rest. Losing my peripheral vision meant instead of walking straight, I’d walk to my right.”
“I decided to do the mini-marathon on June 5th to raise funds for CUH Charity because CUH are the ones that got me walking again.”
Because of the care her mum received in hospital, Francesca’s daughter Jasmine has now embarked on a nursing career.
Glen Arrigan, one of Ms Murray’s Clinical Nurse Specialists at CUH, which sees more than 600 stroke patients a year, described her recovery as “incredible”.
You can support Fran’s fundraiser for CUH Charity here .
