Ryan Thomas has shared the supportive message he sent to his friend and former Coronation Street star Chris Fountain after he spoke out about suffering a mini stroke. The actor, who played Tommy Duckworth in the ITV soap, revealed he spent five days in a London hospital after waking up at home unable to speak properly in August.
Chris said he was left "speaking like a toddler" after doctors discovered he had suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) – known as a mini stroke – after a blood clot lodged in his brain. After several days of undergoing tests at a specialist stroke unit at the Royal London Hospital, medics had determined the actor had a hole in his heart which had caused the blood clot to travel to his brain, triggering the stroke.
Chris, who appeared in Corrie from 2011 up until being axed in 2013, said he had broken down in tears when doctors informed him he had had a TIA, and only called 111 after waking up to a phone call from his mum and being left unable to get my words out.
