On the evening of 17th December 2020, my husband, Tony, collapsed at home and was rushed to the QMC. He had a large blood clot to his brain and had life saving surgery to remove it. After spending 2 weeks in intensive care, with the help from the amazing nurses there, he recovered well from the operation. He was then moved to ward C5, 'The Acute Stroke Unit' which is where he is today. The clot caused significant weakness to the left side of his body, which he now has to work to build back up. Tony is strong and determined so I know that, with the help of the incredible nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists he will fight back and gain his strength again.

This of course will not be a quick or easy journey for Tony. With the current restrictions, I am not able to be there with him and this is certainly taking its toll on both of us now. As I can't visit and put my time and effort into being with him, I wanted to do something productive - which is when I came up with this idea. Tony did something similar to this back in November, to raise money for Derby South Salvation Army. So taking inspiration from him I am going to be 'Walking 10K steps a day for Ward C5' According to my health app, I average at around 7K a day so it's pushing me to go that little bit further - and all for a good cause. With not knowing how long it will be until Tony is home, I cannot commit to a certain time limit but will be doing this every single day until he is discharged and back home where he belongs (Then I'm sure I'll still get my 10K in running around after him all day!)

I understand that this is a hard time for a lot of people financially, but anything you can give to support the work that happens on the ward would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and thanks in advance for your kind donations.

Emma Squires