When Dave Collins had a stroke aged 52, he was told he might never walk independently again. A fit, active man who spent decades in construction, the sudden loss of movement on his left side was devastating – not just physically, but to his sense of self.
"I remember lying in the hospital bed thinking: this is it. This is my life now," he recalls. "But something inside me refused to accept that. I'm stubborn – always have been. And for the first time, that stubbornness saved me."
“Recovery isn't a straight line – but every small step adds up.”
A cup of tea and a grip that wouldn't hold
It was an ordinary Tuesday morning. Dave noticed his left hand wouldn't grip his mug. Within minutes he was on the floor. His wife Karen called 999, and two hours later he was in hospital receiving emergency treatment.
"The doctors were brilliant, but honest. They said the stroke had affected the part of my brain that controls movement and that I should prepare for a long road." He pauses. "They were right about the road. But they underestimated where it would lead."
The thing no one told him in those early weeks
Now 55, Dave volunteers with his local Headway group, mentoring people freshly discharged from hospital. He tells them the same thing no one told him: you will have bad days – days when it feels like you've gone backwards. Those days are part of it too.
"Don't let them define the whole story," he says. Last spring, Dave completed a 5km charity walk for Headway – his first ever sponsored event.