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Sacha's story

By Stroke Aotearoa

Sacha had her first mini at stroke at only 17-years-old, but you could never tell now. She shares her story with us to inspire others that full recovery is possible after stroke.

Sacha with her husband on their wedding day

"On my 17th birthday I had my first mini stroke, I had a tingly feeling down my right side and my face felt funny. I didn’t know what it was, but it just didn’t feel right. I kept having these ‘migraines’ over and over again.

I went to the hospital, the doctors did tests and kept telling me that I was having migraines. I had over 30 MRIs, 3 lumbar punctures, CTs, tests galore.


I had another stroke at school, in the corridor. I completely lost the feeling down my right side and fell to the floor. The numbness didn’t leave me, and I knew now that I wasn’t just having migraines.

I went to the hospital, and they finally said I was having mini strokes, but they didn’t know why.

I had 19 mini strokes over nine months, leaving me with a numb right side, completely lost my short-term memory. The last stroke left me in a coma for 12 hours.

I was in ICU, with my grandpa at the end of the bed praying for me, the doctors said they couldn’t do anything. I woke up and said, ‘Grandpa where’s my cellphone?’

The doctors finally figured out that I had a tear in my artery in my brain and I had brain surgery in March 2009. They went up through my groin to my brain to shut off the artery.

I was young and a mystery, I was brave and still am. I had my grandpa, my main supporter by my side.

Taking me to all my appointments at the Stroke Foundation, Laura Ferguson, I learnt how to walk again, how to talk, write, everything. I had to write everything down so I would remember it.

I had to learn how to speak, as it was like my brain’s ‘short term memory’ had been wiped and I had to start from the beginning. It was hard but I like a challenge.

What I found to be the biggest challenge was that the thing that I looked normal. Yes, it’s a positive, but when your brain has been through so much trauma, I wanted to look different so people would know.

I didn’t give up or stop trying, I kept studying and improving. I did a culinary course, makeup artistry diploma, freelance makeup work and years of Sales and now Marketing.

It’s been 10 years since I had my strokes, I have had 10 years of challenges of growth and triumph.

I am now a normal person walking around, living a normal life. And I owe this to my grandpa, friends, and all the people who told me I could do it.

Life’s a challenge - bad things happen to you and you can either run away from it or try and fix it. I can happily say I’m a stroke survivor and every day is a blessing."

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If you'd like to share your experience with stroke, you can submit it here.