Stroke at 29... and she now does stand-up comedy about it! 🎤 Molly Kinsey sounds like she's got the right stuff 🧠 She had a stroke in 2022, and she's taken to the stage to rebuild her life and confidence. Her act is about the chaos of raising her young son, and when she drops in that she's a stroke survivor, as she puts it: 'it's fun to be a bit daft about it, and I don't want people to feel sorry for me.'
What about you? Do you too like a laugh? Does it make life easier? (It does for me - Tom!) Molly says that she woke one morning where she lives in Exeter, totally blind in her left eye, and A&E first suspected a migraine until a scan confirmed a stroke, and revealed she'd had two earlier ones without realising.
The cause was a patent foramen ovale (a small hole in the heart that lets a clot reach the brain), since closed with surgery. It left her with memory problems, fatigue and eyesight difficulties, and for a long time she was depressed and convinced her dreams were over.
She'd always wanted to do stand-up but assumed the brain injury made it impossible: 'I told myself I'd never remember material, never be quick enough. Recently, I realised the only person stopping me was me.' On stage she works with the deficits: 'my brain just blanks out... I have to give myself a minute, it's like a computer where I turn myself off and on again.' She took a comedy course, has since played the Exeter Comedy Festival, and is booked for Penzance in October.
I've found research behind this, too; studies do link laughter to lower stress hormones, reduced pain, better mood and improved sociability... and that comedy has been found to help mental health recovery through connectedness, hope, identity and purpose. For a survivor rebuilding confidence and fighting isolation, I guess that making a room laugh does most of that at once.
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says: recovery isn't only physical, and confidence, identity and purpose are definitely as important as any exercise. What do you reckon? Do you too like a laugh? Does it make life easier? (It does for me - Tom!) ;0
www.arni.co.uk
#ARNIStrokeRehab #StrokeSurvivor #YoungStroke #StrokeRecovery #Comedy
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ARNI: providing specialist rehabilitation and exercise support after hospital and community physiotherapy finishes.
Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com
www.arni.co.uk
#neuroplasticity #strokerehabilitation #strokerecovery #neurorehab #strokerecoveryexercises #exerciseafterstroke #strokeexercise
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Knowing the difference between active and passive exercises means you can adapt exercises to your ability level.
ARNI trainers are tare able to adjust your current exercises, or recommend new ones, to fit your needs.
Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's a trainer near you.
www.arni.c#strokeexerciseinstructoru#neurorehabilitationa#exerciseafterstroket#strokerehabr#strokeexerciser#strokerehabilitationa#strokerecoveryexercisesc#neurorehabrehab
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Just to remind you - The ARNI programme offers a tailored training regime for each individual, which revolves around functional movement with task-related exercises. ARNI will teach you the importance of encouraging brain plasticity with the practice that you do. The ARNI Approach is the first comprehensive collection of reality-based techniques grounded in contemporary neurological research perspectives that is available for you to access after the assistance of the therapist.
This dedicated approach is completely unique; it has been designed specifically for the needs of the stroke survivor with partial paralysis who feels that they cannot find any way to recuperate further using more traditional approaches. It relies on the effects of a combination of neurologically complementary strategies.
Traditional therapy has for many years now been challenged by evidence revealing that task specific strength training and exercises.
We have trainers throughout the UK who can help you with your recovery. Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's one near you who can help you with your recovery.
www.arni.co#strokeexerciser#neuroplasticityi#arnistrokecharitya#strokerecoveryo#StrokeSurvivorsi#neurorehabr#strokerehabilitationa#strokerecoveryexercisesc#exerciseafterstroketroke
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So, walk round your house, walk outside if you can; depending on your environment, try building up distances, or count to 10 steps, turn around and go back. It is important as a stroke survivor that you don’t use your lack of mobility as an excuse for immobility. Don’t stop at just walking in a straight line either. Walk around an imaginary circle on the floor. Do lots of these. Stop, turn, and walk around the other way. Then repeat without losing your balance. Even experiment with one or two backwards steps, but only one or two!
www.arni.co.uk
#neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #arnistrokecharity #ARNIstrokerehab #neurorehab #arnistrokerehab #arnistroke #strokerehabilitation #ARNIstroke #walkingafterstroke
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It’s important to set realistic goals during stroke recovery; and keep setting higher goals as you progress. The more you improve, the more you are able to set new goals for a higher level of recovery.
If you like this post then please share it with others. Each time that you share a post, you can directly help other people – as who knows which people in the world might find us and gain, either directly from the charity or simply by being able to copy an ‘innovative and useful’ move/trick of the trade that might help them manage after stroke.
Every time you share, you could directly help someone – as knowledge is power ;)
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#strokerecovery #arnistrokecharity #arnistroke #arnistrokerehab #strokerehabilitation #strokerehab #neurorehab
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Did anyone catch the Coronation Street stroke storyline? 🧠💙 If you did, let us know please = what do you think of Sydney Martin's portrayal of the 19-year-old Betsy Swain's stroke? As far as I can gather, in the plot so far she's about to be discharged??
I don't watch Corrie, but the film-makers apparently did the smart thing and instead of just making up what they thought an acute stroke survivor looks like ({cringe past portrayals I've seen!) and took direction/cues real stroke survivor (Louise Hindley, from Leigh in Wigan) who was worked directly with the show's writers, producers, directors and actors to make sure it matched what really happens.
At 20, Louise (2nd pic, below) it took three days and three attempts, before anyone believed her that she'd had a stroke. It wasn't diagnosed for three days because GPs and paramedics kept putting it down to alcohol or drugs, even though she couldn't see, speak or walk. Her sister had to call 999 a second time to get another ambulance out. At hospital she was then told it was an ear infection, until an MRI finally showed the stroke!
In her words: 'that night, I genuinely thought I was going to die.' The cause turned out to be a hole in her heart, later operated on, and she spent three weeks in hospital having physio.
Louise brought her family into the process too, so the soap could show what a stroke does to the people around the survivor, not just the survivor. She said: 'strokes aren't just something that happen to elderly people. The recovery is long and tough, and it really changes you as a person. I think other young stroke survivors will watch it and feel seen.'
She's right about the numbers of course... as we know, one in four strokes happen to people of working age. Louise is now married with two children and has turn#ARNIstrokerehabn#strokesurvivorn#youngstrokee#coronationstreet.#strokeawarenessStrokeRehab #StrokeSurvivor #YoungStroke #CoronationStreet #StrokeAwareness
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One Comment
The idea of combining brain stimulation with real-time digital control sounds like a huge step forward for stroke rehabilitation. It’s encouraging to see research focusing not only on mobility recovery but also on improving daily independence through technology.