Fitness coach Becki Barratt suffered a paralysing stroke at her Chester home three weeks after giving birth to her son, leaving her left side immobile.
The 33-year-old was sitting on the sofa on a quiet Sunday morning in April, nursing her three-week-old son, Beauden, while her two-year-old daughter, Aréya, played nearby.
Barratt, who runs her own health and fitness business, had only just remarked to her 32-year-old partner James how remarkably well she felt after recently giving birth when a strange, heavy feeling suddenly came over her as James went upstairs to use the toilet.
"My left hand began spasming involuntarily," Barratt recalled. "I managed to put Beauden down on the floor, but when I tried to stand up, my left leg collapsed completely underneath and I fell to the floor, unable to move."
She screamed for James, who raced downstairs to find her unable to move. With her speech slurring, she told him she felt like she was having a stroke, an idea she initially found absurd given her healthy diet, active lifestyle, and lack of high blood pressure.
An ambulance arrived within 15 minutes to take Barratt to hospital. As she was wheeled away on a stretcher, her daughter screamed that someone was taking her mother away, an ordeal Barratt described as heartbreaking.
By the time she arrived at hospital, the entire left side of her body was paralysed, leaving her face expressionless and her voice a slurred monotone. "I thought, 'This is it. I’ll never move again,'" she said.
An emergency CT scan showed no visible bleed on the brain to indicate a haemorrhagic stroke, a severe condition caused by bleeding in or around the brain that produces violent headaches, weakness down one side, or loss of consciousness.
Because Barratt sometimes experienced migraines, doctors initially thought her paralysis might be caused by a hemiplegic migraine, a rare type that can mimic a stroke by causing temporary weakness down one side due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain rather than blocked blood flow.
To be safe, medical staff administered the clot-busting treatment thrombolysis while awaiting final test results. Giving thrombolysis within a "golden hour" window gives patients the best chance of survival and reduces long-term disability from an ischaemic stroke.
Two days later, an MRI scan confirmed that a blood clot had cut off oxygen to the right side of Barratt's brain. The prompt use of thrombolysis saved her life, though damaged brain tissue left her entire left side paralysed.
"My whole world spiralled," Barratt said. "We were living in this perfect baby bubble, and in a single second, it had burst."
She began daily rehabilitation therapy in hospital the following day. Accustomed to lifting heavy weights in the gym, Barratt found her whole goal had become trying to force a neural signal down to bend her left little finger.
Three days after her stroke, she managed her first tiny steps supported by four physiotherapists, describing the milestone as a humongous leap forward. She was discharged home after five days in hospital.
Recovery at home and medical testing
Arriving home in a wheelchair proved to be an emotional dose of reality as Barratt adapted to what she described as her new norm. A bed was set up in the family sitting room, while both her parents and James's parents rallied to help look after the children.
"I’d lie there helpless, hearing my baby crying for me upstairs, unable to reach him," Barratt recalled. "Every day became about small victories: changing a nappy, holding my children safely, making a cup of tea."
Five months on, Barratt undergoes hour-long rehabilitation sessions at home three to four times a week. She can now walk and run short intervals, though her left side remains weaker, limiting her to holding her children on that side for only about a minute.
Medical tests have not yet identified the exact cause of Barratt's stroke. She was checked for a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a flap-like opening between the two top chambers of the heart that normally closes shortly after birth, but the test came back clear, as did blood tests for clotting disorders.
Barratt is awaiting a transoesophageal echocardiogram, a detailed ultrasound scan of the heart taken from inside the oesophagus, which could still detect a PFO. Up to one in four people have a PFO, which usually causes no issues, but can allow a blood clot from a vein to pass through to the brain. If found, a PFO can be closed with surgery.
"I’m aware I may never get the answers I want, as around 50 per cent of strokes are left unexplained," Barratt said. "All I can do is focus on what is in my control."
Rising stroke incidence in younger adults
Her recent childbirth may offer a clue to the cause. Professor Deb Lowe, a consultant stroke physician at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, explained that pregnancy and the period immediately following delivery are recognised times of heightened stroke risk because of increased strain on a mother's body, which elevates the risk of high blood pressure and blood clots.
A major 2017 study of two million women in England, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that stroke risk is nine times higher in the days around childbirth and three times higher in the six weeks afterwards compared to normal risk outside pregnancy. Overall risk is estimated at 30 strokes per 100,000 pregnancies, though women with pre-eclampsia face a far higher risk of up to one in 500 births.
In the UK, around 100,000 people suffer a stroke each year, amounting to one every five minutes. Ischaemic strokes, caused when a clot blocks blood flow and oxygen to the brain, account for about 85 per cent of cases.
Professor Martin James, a consultant stroke physician at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, noted that while most strokes occur in people over 65, around one in four occurs in working-age individuals, a figure that is steadily increasing. "Even after extensive tests, sometimes we simply cannot say for certain why a stroke happened," he added, noting that high blood pressure is a silent killer that everyone should get checked regularly.
Research co-authored by Dr Linxin Li, an associate professor at the Wolfson Centre for the Prevention of Stroke and Dementia at the University of Oxford, revealed that stroke incidence in under-55s rose by 67 per cent between 2002 to 2010 and 2010 to 2018. Published in JAMA Neurology in 2022, the study analyzed GP data from 94,567 people in Oxfordshire.
The research showed no matching rise in other cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks, indicating stroke-specific factors. Dr Li noted that the sharpest increases occurred among younger patients without traditional risk factors like smoking, obesity, or high blood pressure, with a significant rise among people in skilled, professional, or managerial roles.
Experts suggest emerging causes such as working more than 55 hours a week, severe stress, and long-term air pollution exposure. Working over 55 hours weekly is linked to stroke and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm. "This suggests a plausible biological pathway from overwork to stroke via heart rhythm disruption," Dr Li said.
Air pollution is also thought to trigger strokes by increasing body inflammation that raises clot risks. A 2023 review in the journal Stroke showed that while short-term pollution spikes trigger strokes in older adults, cumulative long-term exposure raises risk for younger, healthier individuals. "The strongest evidence for a youth-specific air pollution link is more about cumulative long-term exposure than sudden pollution spikes," Dr Li added.
Marathon challenge for stroke recovery
Barratt is now training to run the London Marathon next April to raise funds for the Stroke Association charity. The race date coincides with the anniversary of her stroke, fulfilling a promise she made to herself while watching the race on television from her hospital bed.
"I can’t run for more than three minutes right now, so 26.2 miles feels a long way off," Barratt said. "But I will get there."
Members of the public can support Barratt's fundraising for the Stroke Association or learn the warning signs of stroke using the FAST acronym (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) at stroke.org.uk.
