I'd spent years treating stroke victims - then I became one myself
For well over a decade former senior nurse Helen Dowell cared for stroke patients on a daily basis at Walsall Manor Hospital as a ward manager.
Spending 15 years in the field the mother of two loved her job, but in 2001 the unthinkable happened.
At the age of just 34, 15 months after the birth of her twins Eloise and Ryan she suffered a devastating stroke, leaving her unable to walk and talk.
The mother-of-two, who ended up being treated on the very ward on which she used to work, now looks back on that day in 2001 as the end of her old life and the start of a very different one.
Helen was home alone and had just the children to bed when she started to feel dizzy.
She quickly rang her husband Ian, 46, who is a doctor. He rushed to their home in Willenhall and instantly realised that something was badly wrong.
Helen, now 48, said: "I think he knew what was happening to me but voicing his concerns would have meant facing his fears.
"I had no idea what was wrong. The classic symptoms that we see on the TV ads of a drooping face, slurred speech, not being able to raise your arm - none of that was known back then. As far as I was concerned, I just felt giddy."
Helen's late mother Ann Draper dashed over to look after the children, a role she took on for the next five months as her daughter split her time between the Manor and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, for treatment.
"It was horrible being separated from the kids but they were brought in to me every day. I don't think there was a day when I didn't see them," she said.
"On a selfish level, I was more concerned about what was happening to me. I was bored and frustrated with not being able to do the things I used to. I don't know whether the selfish thing was just me or whether other stroke patients feel it. The twins used to tire me out. They were too young to realise."
The former Willenhall Comprehensive pupil, who grew up in Wolverhampton Road, Birchills, had led a very active life before her stroke. She belonged to a cycling club and went on bike rides most weekends. She also swam and walked and had enjoyed a skiing holiday in the late 1990s. Now she loves embroidery.
