Stroke support connects survivors

EMMA Hemsley had a stroke on the operating table in 2019 as surgeons removed a tumour on the then thirty nine year old’s brain.

So, when she moved to Malmsbury two years later, she didn’t know what support services were available around her new home.

“The stroke that I had affected my left side which meant that when I woke up from the surgery, I couldn’t walk. I had forgotten how to do most of the things that you would do with your left side,” she said.

“Luckily, the way that you recover means that you can rebuild neuropathways, so with a lot of physiotherapy straight away I was able to get my brain to remember how to do those kinds of things.”

But Ms Hemsley still has trouble with fine motor skills and struggles with writing, coordination and fatigue.

When she made the tree change from Melbourne, her occupational therapist recommended she check out the Bendigo Stroke Support Centre.

Coordinator, Tamara Lalor, said the service works with stroke survivors after they have been discharged from rehab, either through referrals from organisations or self-referrals.

“Often I see people who, by the time they get to see me, they are lost, isolated and they don’t know where else to turn,” she said.

“What a social network can do for somebody who has had a stroke is to make them feel as though they’re not alone.”

Based in California Gully, the centre coordinates social activities like lunches, walking groups, yoga, and men’s and women’s support groups to help survivors reengage with the community.

For Ms Hemsley, the opportunities to branch out in a social setting meant she could connect with people who knew what she was going through, and even give helpful recovery tips along the way.

“It’s made that difference because my recovery was very individual-based, it was very much my own physio and OT work,” she said.

“Now I get to branch out a bit more and be with people who have all had different experiences and socialise a bit more than I would have.”