Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I WOKE UP LOCKED INTO MY OWN BODY
Brave Clodagh pens book to help others
A WOMAN who spent three months trapped inside her own body and mind has penned a book about the horrifying ordeal to help others.
Clodagh Dunlop was just 35 when a stroke left her unable to communicate or move, however, she was fully aware of everything that was going on around her.
Now almost fours years after she walked out of hospital, the police officer from Co Derry, is lifting the lid on this dark chapter of her life.
Clodagh’s is one of the few cases of locked-in syndrome made public in Northern Ireland.
But she has since learned there are a lot of people out there suffering this rare side effect of stroke.
She said: “People around the world were sending me messages asking about the early days of the illness.”
This inspired her to write her book Return To Duty so people would know how their loved ones suffering from locked-in syndrome may be feeling and what would help.
Clodagh suffered her stroke in April 2015 and was an in-patient at Belfast Royal Victoria and Musgrave Park hospitals, until she was discharged seven months later.
During that time her partner Adrian Simpson, 45, helped her record what was happening.
She added: “The book has been four years in the making.
“This 12th of November will be four years since I walked out of the hospital in Musgrave Park so I hope to launch it around the same time as I was discharged.”
The detective constable was back at work just 18 months after the ordeal turned her life on its head.
She said: “I have been left with some disabilities and I think if I was at home I would have a lot of time to feel sorry for myself.
“But when you go back to work and you are out in the world meeting people your problems seem very minor.
“A lot of people have troubles or worries and I am grateful that I can get up and get out to work,”
Clodagh turned 40 in May and described reaching the milestone as a privilege.
She said: “I remember when I turned 30, I didn’t like it and thought I was getting old.
“I was 35 when I took my stroke and turned 36 in the hospital. I couldn’t move, couldn’t make a sound and I remember thinking, ‘I can’t wait to turn 40 because this will be behind me and I will be able to walk and talk’.
“It felt really special to be able to turn 40 and have a birthday.”
Clodagh describes her story as one of hope.
She added: “It’s very difficult to get past this shocking illness but you can. “If you have been affected like I am with disabilities, there’s nothing you can’t do.
“You have to accept the new normal and learn how to do things differently and learn how to
embrace life.”