We should aim to reduce number of strokes by 90% in the next decade

Sir, – Congratulations and thanks to The Courier and Kirsty Strickland for the excellent and thoughtprovoking article on strokes (April 23).

People ignore this at their peril.

While the acronym Fast has helped to raise awareness of strokes and the need for urgent action, it by no means covers all early symptoms.

In my own case, my first forewarning was the loss of use of a leg, though other symptoms developed subsequently.

Failure to be aware that there is a wider range of symptoms can have fairly dire consequences and people should not assume that being outwith the Fast signs means that they could not possibly have a stroke.

The other message of the article is that far more action is required in the prediction and treatment of strokes.

Despite strokes being known about for centuries, it appears that any medical condition which involves the brain immediately results in a red “keep out” warning sign.

What is abundantly clear is that the country cannot afford the ever increasing casualty rate – 100,000 new cases per annum and rising.

The consequences in people who can no longer work, lose their mobility, the ability to eat and speak etc and can require 24 hours a day care, let alone the fatalities, are no longer affordable, let alone acceptable in a modern society.

My challenge to the governments of the United

Kingdom is to bring about a 90% reduction in the number of strokes in 10 years.

Doubtless, many people will say this is impossible and unaffordable but the same was said about the

American commitment to put a man on the moon in the same time scale.

Can we really afford not to make a far greater commitment?

In a staggering blunder, the SNP has turned most Scottish schools into Green Party indoctrination camps.

The curriculum and the Green manifesto are often indistinguishable.

A generation of Green voters is being churned out, one year group at a time.

Of course, the SNP intended to manufacture hordes of mini SNP supporters but, in their evangelistic zeal, they overshot.

The indoctrination was too extreme.

The SNP will now pay dearly for their incompetence as the Greens mount a formidable challenge to them at every election at every level.

SYMPTOMS: Warning signs of a stroke are more diverse than those most people know.