A fit and healthy dad woke up paralysed after he suffered a sudden and major stroke while lying in bed.
Mark Paterson, 48, had led an active life, taking his eight-year-old son Jamie mountain biking through Delamere Forest in Cheshire, as well as hiking and paddleboarding.
But all that came to an end after he suffered a major stroke in bed on September 2, 2021, reports Cheshire Live.
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Mark would spend the next month at Leighton Hospital in Northwich, unable to see his wife and son due to covid restrictions.
His left arm was completely paralysed and severe weakness in his left leg has rendered him only able to walk short distances assisted by a walking stick.
The dad-of-one and competitive field archer has launched a GoFundMe page after his son told him that the thing he missed most was the bike rides that the pair shared.
Without the use of his left arm, Mark would have to use a specialist recumbent tricycle, that can cost upwards of £4,000.
Mark said: "I said to him on Saturday: 'What would you most like to get back?' And he said 'bikey bikey' - that’s his nickname for our bike rides - so I started looking into ways to do it.
"There’s a specialist bike shop in Cuddington that sells the tricycles, but they're about four grand. I'm on reduced sickness pay, and I couldn't afford that. So the guy at the shop suggested we try a Gofundme page.
"I'd feel a bit cheeky asking for the full amount, and that's why I'm looking to raise fifteen-hundred. Any surplus funds will go to Different Strokes. They’re a charity who focus on helping stroke survivors who are working age."
Mark says that he is proud of the way his young son has coped with his dad's illness, and that being with his family has helped his recovery enormously.
He said: "He’s coping very well with it. He saw me before he went to bed, and then saw the ambulance in the morning and I was gone.
"Psychologically it’s been a massive improvement being at home with them... 50 per cent of your recovery is your mental attitude to it.
"It [stroke] has still got that old person aura about it, at Leighton, I shared a room with a 28-year-old lad from Winsford who had had three strokes. People were saying I was too young to be in there, and I'd look over at this guy and think: 'If I'm too young, what does that make him.
"He was discharged before me. There was a time were everyone I was in a room with kept being discharged, and never me. Always the bridesmaid never the bride.
"Then the doctor said that I could go home on Friday if I wanted to. It was a bit unnerving, I was thinking: 'I've got all the care here', but I had to go home; there was no question.
"The team in Leighton were superb, and now I've got the community team coming in and they’re great. They visit three times a week. We’ve just started trying electrical stimulation on the arm, which stimulates the muscles and reminds the brain that: 'Hey, we're still here', then the neural pathways form."
Mark hopes that the recumbent tricycle will help build up the muscles in his legs.
"It’s scary how quickly your muscles deteriorate when you’re lying in a hospital bed," he said.
At the time of writing, Mark's Gofundme page was close to reaching its target of raising £1,500. Any surplus donations will be given to Different Strokes, a charity that works with younger stroke survivors.
