Help Marion’s road to recovery

WHO ARE WE?

Hi - we are the Ayrton family.

Marion, Roger, Alison & Nicola!

We are Nicola and Alison. Marion’s daughters.

WHAT’S HAPPENED?

In November 2022, Marion Ayrton suffered a severe stroke.

Mum was in Queens Hospital, Romford, and was made comfortable following a very traumatic day. Due to the delay of not knowing when she had the stroke, Drs were unable to give her clot busting drugs.

The evening we left her she was telling us to go home as we had been there all day. The day after when we returned we faced a very different picture and to say we were shocked is an understatement.

Nobody could prepare us for how our mum was.

The Dr said the severity of the stroke had progressed overnight and she had severe brain damage to the left side of her brain.

Mum could no longer talk, walk or move unaided.

The right side of her body is paralysed with no movement. She was unable to swallow or eat solid foods.

We were quite rightly hysterical with concern, upset, frustration and worry.

How could this happen to our Mum?

Mum - Marion - has already survived breast cancer twice. The second time round in her cancer journey, Mum had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. She had several bouts of chemotherapy, radio therapy and herceptin treatment. Following on from the surgery she had a hernia and subsequent surgery to remove it.

Following on from her stroke, Mum stayed in hospital for over 1 month and was transferred home just before Christmas 2022.

She returned home with full time care.

Slowly, we as a family learnt a lot from the carers and occupational therapist how to move Mum, transfer her and make her comfortable.

We have had to learn how to dress again, how to hold a spoon, how to sit up again. Every day is relearning something new.

HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE?

After the stroke, Mum could not talk.

She has a condition that some people suffer from after a stroke. It is called Aphasia and Apraxia.

Aphasia is when a person has a difficulty with their language or speech.

Apraxia of speech is difficulty initating and executing voluntary movement patterns necessary to produce speech.

Mum has:

We didn’t know what to do and the hospital didn’t give us any aids to communicate. We made a yes/no/don’t understand communication board (laminated bit of paper) which we use still to this day.

Mum uses her thumb (up/down) for yes and no but we are trying to progress every day to using the words yes/no.

With the help of an app called CueSpeak we have been able to progress mums speech a little.

WHAT ARE WE FUNDRAISING FOR?

After two months of minimal therapy on the NHS, they are planning on stopping all rehabilitation. This means we will now have to self fund all therapy costs ourselves and there is only so far our minimal life savings will go.

The severity of the stroke means that Mum requires intensive speech therapy and especially at this early stage after her stroke for her to be given the chance to regain her voice and (hopefully) talk and have a conversation again.

The earlier this therapy is started after a stroke, the greater chance we have of regaining some speech and movement.

Each session for neuro-rehabilitation with a specialist speech language and cognitive therapist costs £120. Mum needs a minimum of three hour sessions a week costing a total of £360 per week. This is approx £1,440 a month. We need approximately a minimum of 6 months but potentially longer. This would cost £8,640.

We are required to pay for mums physio therapy which also needs to be intensive and at least 2 sessions per week. Each session costs £59.

This is without needing adaptations to our home.

We need to :

A stroke changes lives and we are asking for help and support to help rebuild ours.

Please donate and help Marion.

£120 will pay for one hour speech session.

£59 will pay for one hour physiotherapy session.

Thank you!