Young woman paralysed by spinal stroke – and she's only 21... same age as Dr Tom, founder of ARNI Stroke Rehab UK when he had his stroke. A fit 19-year-old student, Lucy Dunford from Wakefield told the Yorkshire Post this week that she began suffering stabbing pains between her shoulder blades in December 2024.
She just thought it was just a normal backache and took paracetamol... weeks later she was in A&E, unable to walk. By the next morning she was paralysed from the chest down. Doctors have confirmed she had a spinal stroke (a rare condition caused by disruption to the blood supply of the spinal cord), which typically affects people aged 50 to 70.
Lucy can only move her arms and endures severe nerve pain, which she describes as if her blood had been replaced by lava, and uncontrollable muscle spasms that throw her around in her wheelchair and make everyday life genuinely dangerous. Everything, from getting out of bed to going to the cinema, now requires enormous effort and planning. But still, she has kept going with her university degree in leadership and management at Hull...
Lucy has already paid over £20k out of her own pocket for stem cell treatment, and is currently crowdfunding to fund an intensive 10-week physio programme she began in August 2025, designed to help guide new stem cells to damaged nerves and rebuild muscle control. Neither the news articles nor the GoFundMe page name the specific physiotherapy centre, provider, or clinician that Lucy is working with. The GoFundMe page describes the need for the £10,000 intensive follow-up physio but doesn't identify where it will be delivered...
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says - intensive neurorehab definitely remains one of the strongest tools available for spinal cord recovery, and here in the UK, access to it on the NHS is way too limited and inconsistent, which is why so many survivors are left fundraising for what should be a right, considering all that we pay in our taxes for things that have MUCH less, if any, relevance to us at all!
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIStrokeRehab #SpinalStroke #StrokeRecovery #YoungStrokeSurvivor #StrokeRehabilitation 💪❤️🎗️
... See MoreSee Less
Rehabilitation is an ongoing process to maintain and refine skills that will last for months or years after the stroke.
The most important element in any recovery programme is carefully directed, well-focused, repetitive practice - the same kind of practice used by anybody when they learn a new skill, such as playing the piano or kicking a penalty at football.
To find out if there's an ARNI trainer near you who can help you with your recovery call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com
www.arni.co#neurorehabr#neuroplasticityi#strokerehabilitationa#exerciseafterstroket#strokeexerciser#strokerehabrehab
... See MoreSee Less
A core part of the ARNI approach is to teach stroke survivors how to cope with falls; the most dangerous part of the balance problems caused by stroke.
Survivors (many of whom have the functional use of just one arm) learn how to get down to, and up from, the floor without any kind of external support to pull themselves up with.
If you want to learn the ARNI approach to coping with falls you need to give us a call on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com and we'll let you know if there's a trainer available to help you.
www.arni#strokerecoveryk#ARNIstrokerehabt#neuroplasticityp#ARNIstrokerehabt#arnistrokea#neurorehabn#arnistrokecharityo#strokesurvivorscanrvivorscan
... See MoreSee Less
While some say having lots of kids can make you lose your faculties, a new study suggests otherwise AND associates a greater number of (live) births with a reduced risk of stroke or brain damage for mothers...
Research co-led by UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio, found that as more women than men have strokes, the finding is seen as significant in helping determine risk. These findings would suggest that reproductive factors (for example, number of births one has) may be an additional factor to consider when assessing women's stroke risk. Interesting eh? ;)
Reproductive factors – for example, age at first menstrual period, age at menopause, circulating estrogen levels, number of pregnancies and use of hormone replacement therapy – affect overall lifetime exposure to estrogen, and therefore have been implicated as important predictors of future stroke risk in women.
Generally, greater exposure for a longer period or to higher levels of the body's own estrogen has recently been associated with a lower burden of cerebral small-vessel disease in women. However, evidence for some factors, such as number of births, has been conflicting. The researchers used statistical analyses known as multivariable Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for major vascular risk factors, and determined that three or more live births were associated with a reduced risk of stroke. Similarly, they found that three or more births were associated with decreased risk of vascular brain injury.
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says that this may well be an important factor to include in female-specific clinical prediction rules for stroke, but will obvs require further study...
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIStrokeRehab #StrokePrevention #WomenAndStroke #UTHealthSanAntonio #FraminghamStudy
... See MoreSee Less
Research indicates that home-based stroke rehabilitation programmes like the ARNI intervention can be effective and potentially more beneficial than traditional hospital-based rehabilitation for some stroke survivors, particularly those with mild to moderate disability.
These programmes often involve a team of physios and trainers, and they can be designed to improve function, reduce disability, and enhance quality of life.
A well known finding is that rehabilitation for stroke can be powerful enough that it can be offered in any setting without sophisticated equipment or technology.
But did you know that WITHOUT at least some kind of supervision and better, regular home retraining to deliver adequate dosages of retraining, only ≈1 of 3 of people with stroke will be able to follow or benefit from a home rehabilitation programme that's just written down or given to the survivor?
So, if you need some help with your recovery call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com. We have trainers throughout the country who can help you.
www.arni.uk.#ARNIstrokerehabr#arnistroket#arnistrokecharitya#strokerehabilitationa#neurorehabr#ARNIstrokerehabr#neuroplasticityi#strokerecoveryo#strokesurvivorscvorsc
... See MoreSee Less
To change the brain the skill you're practicing must ideally have meaning, relevance or importance to you.
So what's important to you? Playing an instrument? Brushing your hair? #strokerecoveryk#ARNIstrokerehabt#arnistrokea#ARNIstrokerehabt#neurorehabn#neuroplasticityp#strokerehabilitationb#arnistrokecharityokecharity
www.arni.uk.com
... See MoreSee Less
Neuroplasticity is the mechanism that the brain uses to rewire itself and form new connections. Each time a meaningful task is practiced, those pathways are reinforced and become stronger.
As pathways begin to reform and strengthen, it improves the communication between the brain and body.
Gradually, impairments on the affected side begin to improve because the brain is able to send signals again. The more you practice, the stronger those skills become.
If you need some help with your recovery call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com. We have trainers throughout the country who can help you.
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIstrokerehab #arnistroke #arnistrokecharity #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #ARNIstrokerehab #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #strokesurvivorscan
... See MoreSee Less
Your writing after stroke tells the story of neuroplasticity perfectly - if you've had stroke; check this out!
So, before your stroke, the primary motor cortex (M1) contained a densely wired, highly specific cortical map for hand and finger movement; thousands of precisely organised neural connections built up over decades of writing, representing the exact sequence, pressure, speed & co-ordination of every letter you formed.
A stroke damages or destroys part of that map - and what neuroplasticity does next is extraordinary... but it isn't the same thing. Surviving perilesional tissue (the areas immediately surrounding the infarct) begins to reorganise; premotor and supplementary motor areas that previously played only a supporting role recruit themselves into the primary role, and in some cases the contralesional hemisphere contributes via interhemispheric pathways that were previously minor.
The movement comes back... but through a DIFFERENT route. The new cortical representation is less specific, less densely connected and less refined than the original; it lacks the automaticity that decades of practice had built into M1, so writing now requires conscious attention for every stroke of every letter... the kind of effortful, deliberate control that you last needed as a child learning to form letters for the first time.
The proprioceptive feedback loops between the fingers, the cerebellum and M1 that previously operated below conscious awareness now have to be partially managed at a cortical level, which is why the letters are larger, less even and more effortful... even when the hand is technically moving.
What you're seeing on the page is literally a new map doing its best with less territory; and with enough repetition, that new map can become considerably more refined than it is today. Amazing, eh?
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says: this is exactly why writing practice matters and why it needs to be done in high volume, consistently, over a long time. Because, you're not just practising writing, you're building a new cortical map from scratch. 🧠✍️
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIStrokeRehab #Neuroplasticity #StrokeRecovery #StrokeRehabilitation #NeuroRehab
... See MoreSee Less
ARNI Stroke Charity for stroke survivors, families and healthcare professionals: providing specialist rehabilitation and exercise support after hospital and community physiotherapy finishes.
www.arni.uk.com
#neurorehabilitation #ARNIstrokerehab #arnistrokecharity #strokerehabilitationtraining #strokeexercise #exerciseafterstroke
... See MoreSee Less
A study being completed by Tom Oliani as part of his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield concerns well-being after stroke. 
One Comment
I am 71, female, and had a stroke 17yrs ago. I lay on the floor for 28hrs, then an indeterminate time on the ambulance, going through A/E, then into a bed, when I awoke my daughter asked me something, I answered her, and she told me later she didn’t understand a word I said. I stayed in hospital for 3 weeks, not getting much better, then I went to my sister-in-law, who was a nurse. I had, and paid for, a Physio, OT, speech therapist, and by the time I left, 5weeks, I could walkabout 4/5 feet, then collapsing, my speech went up from 25% to about 70%. I tried to put my feet on the stairs, and I remember thinking I’d never walk up stairs again. I next went to Wolfson, and they were brilliant, I stayed for the full 3mnths, and at the end of that, I could walk about 25ft, I did art, they taught me to cook a bit, to iron, etc. When I was taken for walks by my physio for 6 weeks,she asked me what I would do and I said Art, and could I do Pilates – she said “oh no” and I said to myself “You wait”. The following g day I went and signed up for Art & Pilates! I broke my arm a year later, was taken by ambulance to Kingston again, and the radiographer said “you’ve broken your arm before” and the only time I might have broken was when I had a Stroke! I was showed how to go up an escalator. I went on to do Pilates twice a week for 13yrs, I went to INS once a week, while there I stood up in front of St George’s students and told them about my journey, and told them about my broken arm, so that they could think about it, and remember it! Then I moved here to Lynwood Village, and have a pool, and I tried to swim on my back with our trainer, and I did it, I couldn’t believe it – so when it’s open, I swim for an hour three times a week! I do Art, I used to go to the cinema and to see the theatre there, the real theatre, we have outings, I do sewing up of the squares to make blankets, do things here and just enjoy everything! I have always lived on my own, once the children have flown, been seeing them, and going to Denmark to see one daughter & family, been on a cruise, been to fly to Barbados. And I am one handed, my left hand which I had to learn to write again, and my right leg is a little iffy, but I just soldier on, and I enjoy everything, for 17yrs!!! My children tell me I’m dogged, I think I’m just cantankerous!!!