A woman discovered she was born with an 'arterial malformation' after having a stroke and not being able to talk.
Mum-of-two Kerry Tate, 44, had suffered with headaches for years and was initially concerned after developing a headache on a Saturday evening after a glass of champagne. However, the pain only continued to get worse, YorkshireLive reports.
Over the proceeding days in May last year the pain began to worsen, waking up on Wednesday morning unable to talk. She had to write a note to let her family know what was going on and she was rushed to hospital for a CT scan.
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The scan showed she had suffered a bleed on the brain and more surprisingly that the Pontefract mum had been born with an 'arterial malformation', causing her to have this stroke.
This was only the beginning of a 'daunting journey', she said, which is far from over. Kerry is undergoing speech therapy and underwent gamma knife surgery last month.
She told YorkshireLive : "I'm not going to be the person I was before my stroke, and my speech is not going to get any better. It is quite hard to compute that."
Kerry's doctors do not know if the gamma knife surgery was a success yet as the results can take up to four years. However, Kerry is confident she received the best possible care from staff at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
She is now fully focusing on her recovery at home, supported by her family, including her children Harrison, 18 and Edward, 16.
Kerry, who works as Head of Marketing at Capita, is also looking forward to returning to work soon alongside her colleagues, who have supported her throughout.
She hopes that by sharing her experience she can help make people aware "a stroke can happen to anyone."
