I thought I’d had a bit too much prosecco.. but it turned out to be a stroke
Fitness fan is battling back to do 5k run for charity
WHEN Mollie Docherty woke up feeling rough after a late night with pals, she put it down to too much prosecco – but the 23-year-old had suffered a stroke.
The admin worker, a keen swimmer and kickboxer, ended up in hospital fighting for her life after falling ill at home in June.
Shocked Mollie, now 24, said: “I’ve always been active and quite slim. I never thought what was happening to me was a stroke.”
Mollie had invited pals to her Dundee home for food.
She said: “I had a couple of glasses of prosecco. My friends left about 2am and I awoke about 9.30am feeling a bit rough.”
She went back to sleep for a while and felt better so she got up to tidy up.
Mollie said: “It was like someone had flicked a switch. I lost my balance and couldn’t move my right side.
“I thought I was taking a dizzy turn then I started to mumble and realised I was losing the power of speech.
“I decided to give myself five minutes and if I didnt feel better, I’d go back to bed. But after five minutes, I could no longer walk.
“I realised there was something seriously wrong. I called my neighbour who came running in.”
Mollie, who works with Scotland Gas Networks, was taken to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital for a CT scan.
It showed nothing but the consultant still believed she’d had a stroke and gave her emergency treatment called thrombolysis to prevent further damage. That decision probably saved her life.
She was initially paralysed down her right side but two weeks in Ninewells, followed by six weeks of intensive physiotherapy and occupational therapy at a brain rehabilitation unit, helped her on the road to recovery.
For around five months after her stroke, Mollie’s mum Sharon Docherty, 46, was her full-time carer.
Mollie said: “She had to do everything for me – tie my hair back, tie my laces, button my clothes. It was like I was a baby again.”
Seven months on, Mollie is making good progress.
She still has weakness on her right side but is back at work and training to run a 5K next month to raise funds for the Stroke Association.
While it’s not clear exactly what caused Mollie’s stroke, she believes it may be linked to the contraceptive pill she had taken for six years.
Mollie said: “It was the only risk factor I had.”
She is now keen to raise awareness of strokes.
Mollie said: “I was lucky I got to hospital quickly but there was already a lot of damage done by then. A fast response is vital to surviving and not being left with a permanent disability.
“Young people need to be aware it can happen to them, not just to the old.”
● To sponsor Mollie, go to www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/mollie-docherty