‘My life was saved and I got another chance to live my life’
A man who was saved by his son when he suffered a stroke is hoping a new trike will enable him to help others.
Graeme Cadas’s life changed forever on Easter Monday in 2017. He woke up, made himself a cup of tea and went back into bed.
An hour later his son Jack, who was 15 at the time, found him sitting on the floor, looking confused–and called an ambulance straight away.
Graeme, 49, had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke.
He spent eight weeks in North Tees Hospital learning how to walk and talk again, but a weakness in the right side of his body remained and he is not able to pick up anything with his right hand or raise his foot.
Graeme has said that, according to the doctors, the stroke was a result of a head clash during a football game two days earlier.
But he considers himself lucky, because he didn’t lose his speech.
Graeme, who is originally from Hendon in Sunderland, but moved to Hartlepool 20 years ago, said: "I shouldn’t be able to speak at all. I was very lucky.
"My right arm doesn’ t work very well. I can’t grip anything, my hand doesn’t work.”
Prior to the stroke, Graeme was a keen sportsman.
He said: "I used to be obsessed with sport. I can’t do any sport anymore. I can’t run, I can just walk. I still work fulltime though.”
Despite no longer being able to play himself, sport has remained a big part of his life and Graeme is the manager of Hartle pool TECH–the team he used to play for before suffering the stroke. "It’s a big thing for my mental well-being. It makes me feel very good,” he added.
Graeme, whose mother and sister live in Sunderland, used to also dedicate a lot of his time to helping charities before the stroke, raising almost £5,000 for the Denise Taylor cancer trust and Bradley Lowery by running up Ben Nevis twice in two days.
And there is hope Graeme would once again be able to do what he loves most–exercising and helping others – thanks to a friend from school.
Mario Jaconelli went to St Aidan’s school in Sunderland with Graeme and started a JustGiving to help get him a trike.
Graeme added: "My life was saved and I got another chance to live my life. I know it’ s changed massively, but that’s the purpose now: Just to live the best life that I can.”