I am hoping to raise money to get my 23-year-old niece, Rosa Thomas, back on her feet after a ruptured congenital AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation) caused a catastrophic brain bleed and subsequently a Hemorrhagic stroke. It’s a rare condition that affects only about 1 in a 100,000 people.
Rosa is currently battling to recover her mobility. She lost the use of the right side of her body – both her arm and leg – and is learning to walk and move again. Timely therapy is essential for the the best recovery and most beneficial outcome. She is receiving Speech and Language Therapy for Aphasia (a language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate). Once an avid reader, writer and linguist, Rosa is trying to try to minimise the loss and to learn these skills again.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ROSA?
Rosa was rushed to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne in March 2025 when her colleagues realised she had had a stroke during a work shift. Her chances of survival were slim, and we were led to understand that, even if she did survive the complex surgery, she would be severely disabled, as the damage to her brain was increasing minute by minute until the operation. (Me, her mum and dad sat and cried, did hundreds of wees, drank tea, and soberly discussed organ donation and her funeral, as the odds seemed stacked against us).
Amazingly, she pulled through, thanks to a skilled surgeon and the neurological team. The bleed damaged the rear left-hand side of her brain, resulting in weakness on the right-hand side of her body and limited movement.
She spent two months in the RVI and is now staying at a local neurorehabilitation hospital until the end of the year. She is currently re-learning to walk and talk, and trying to regain some function in her right arm and her right leg, foot and ankle.
She has recently had cranioplasty surgery (a large section of her skull had to be removed during the first operation, and a custom-made replacement has been fitted), and she is determined to press on with rehabilitation.
There has been lots of research showing that early, intensive therapy yields the best outcomes for stroke recovery. The NHS teams are doing a great job, but the sessions are not as frequent or as challenging as Rosa needs, and they can’t offer specialist equipment. Rosa is determined to do the most she can within the window of opportunity available to her and early intervention and repetition are key. (The first six months are crucially important, followed by the rest of the first year, as the brain and body learn to reconnect).
Her speech is improving really well, and we hope she will be able to sing again soon; we just want her body to catch up and the neural pathways to be created and strengthened.
So, here’s the thing. There is a private rehabilitation centre locally which has the latest neuro-technology as well as experienced and highly skilled staff. They are brilliant and knowledgeable and share Rosa’s enthusiasm for aiming for the best recovery possible. And, in just a few recent sessions, they have done some transformative work together. Yet in order to continue this ground-breaking therapy, her parents need financial assistance.
WHO IS ROSA?
She is the bravest, sweetest, brightest person you could ever meet. Before the stroke, Rosa had recently finished a Fine Art degree in Painting (at Edinburgh School of Art ), and was a musician, (in The Samphires), singing, songwriting and playing bass, with regular gigs across the North East and also in Edinburgh. She was a very talented mathematician, hoping to do a Maths MSc, but this skill seems to have gone in the damaged section of her brain, although we are playing puzzles and games to stretch her in this area.
She was living her best life in a flat in Heaton with her bandmate and great friend, Elise. Her wonderful new boyfriend was studying down in London, so she went down regularly to spend time with him, and enticed him up to the North for weekends, too. She was also happily working at The Glasshouse, a local music venue, and had made some good friends in just a few months of starting this job.
Her life was unexpectedly turned upside down with the stroke; she had to stop working and we had to move her out of her first floor flat and her possessions have gone into storage as her life is on hold for now whilst she is in hospital/rehab. She doesn’t know if she is going to be able to write songs, sing or play an instrument again, but we are all ever-hopeful that against the odds, this can happen. She has proved to be so positive and resilient during all she has faced and made us so proud.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP ?
We want to make sure Rosa has a bright future; at 23 she is at the start of her life. Outcomes for younger stroke survivors can be really positive, with the right therapy during the early recovery process. Early intervention and repetition are key to recovery. Despite the large area of damage, neuroplasticity allows new neural connections to form—the brain is an amazing organ.
In order to achieve the best outcome for Rosa, I decided to start this fundraiser. The NHS have been amazing, but they have limited time and stretched resources, so we need additional therapy to help achieve the best recovery.
Rosa has recently started visiting a private facility, Neural Pathways, and we would like to make it more regular. We have also been recommended some equipment to aid her recovery at home, for which I would like to fundraise as well. For example, we have been looking into an electrical stimulation device for her arm, hand, shoulder and leg; some robotic gloves which help encourage hand movement; all of which can be used outside of the therapy sessions to capitalise on recovery.
The treatment Rosa receives at Neural Pathways costs £283.26 each week and we want to double this. Once Rosa comes out of the rehabilitation centre at the end of the year we hope to increase the frequency of her sessions again.
Rosa’s parents are part of a counselling cooperative in the North East, which is a not-for-profit community interest company, enabling people who normally would not be able to access counselling to get the help they need. They are certainly not high earners as the profits from their coop is put back into the business.
I understand some people will not be in a position to donate, or might not want to, and may just be interested in Rosa’s journey, so I will be posting updates on her progress.
Thanks for listening and thank you so much if you do decide to make a donation, however small—anonymous or otherwise.
Lyndsay Makin (Rosa’s mums sister)
THE MONEY RAISED WILL GO INTO A NEW BANK ACCOUNT WHICH HAS BEEN SET UP IN ROSA‘S MUMS NAME SHARON THOMAS AND WILL BE USED SOLELY FOR HER THERAPIES AND EQUIPMENT
