Zoe Mitton
When Zoe Mitton (50) woke up in the middle of the night, unable to move the right side of her body, she had no idea that she was having a stroke. She had gone to bed as normal that evening feeling completely fine.
In the early hours of 5th July 2022, Zoe awoke suddenly. She knew something was wrong and that she needed help urgently. As she tried to get out of bed, her right arm and leg would not move. Alone in her home in Huddersfield, Zoe managed to drag herself down the stairs, into the living room, but she couldn’t work the phone to call for an ambulance.
It wasn’t until Zoe’s cleaner arrived around midday that Zoe was found. By this point it had been almost 12 hours since Zoe’s stroke. She was taken to Calderdale Hospital where she stayed for two months.
Immediately after her stroke, Zoe was unable to move the right side of her body and her speech had gone completely. She didn’t know it at the time, but the bleed on Zoe’s brain had left her with aphasia – a complex communication disorder that impacts speech, reading, writing, and understanding of language.
Zoe was left with a handful of words initially. She knew what she wanted to say, and thought she was saying it correctly, but it just wasn’t coming out right. Zoe found this incredibly confusing and frustrating.
In the weeks following her admission, Zoe’s mobility began to improve through intense physiotherapy. Despite having Covid-19 and a chest infection, Zoe’s determination, and the support and encouragement from her boyfriend of 12-years’, Johnnie and her family including her sister, Kirsteen, helped her to walk again. However, her speech remained a challenge.
With Johnnie and Kirsteen visiting Zoe every day, they spent a lot of time together singing and talking, in the hope that Zoe’s words would return.
Zoe was discharged in early September 2022 and continued to make progress with her mobility. But doing simple things like answering a question, making herself understood, answering her phone or doing online banking were proving difficult due to her aphasia. Zoe needed help.
Her occupational therapist and community speech and language therapist soon referred Zoe to Aphasia Support, to give her extra support with her communication needs. In January 2023, Zoe came along to the charity’s App Club in Wakefield, where she was assessed by the charity’s speech and language therapist and matched with a speech and language therapy student from Leeds Beckett University.
In her initial consultation, Zoe had shared that she felt understanding and having a conversation with a stranger was impossible. She felt helpless and frustrated and worried about her future. She immediately began a 12-week courses of one-to-one support.
Zoe was given an ipad with Aphasia Support’s communication apps on it. Together with her assigned student, Zoe started to work through the tasks, improving her reading and developing her speech. Slowly but surely, Zoe began to build up her speech, to the point where she can now be understood by friends and family. She is constantly improving, thanks to her hard work and motivation.
Although Zoe feels she has improvements to make on her speech, she has come such a long way in less than 12-months. Today, she regularly attends Aphasia Support’s Halifax Aphasia Café, where she receives ongoing speech and language therapy, whilst socialising with other people living with similar challenges. She has made new friends and feels her wellbeing has improved as a result.
Prior to her stroke, Zoe was Head of Graduate Recruitment at FDM, travelling between Leeds, London, and Glasgow. She has not returned to work since her stroke, but this is one of Zoe’s ultimate aims – to return to the job she loved.
“Zoe has now been offered a remarkable opportunity of receiving a new life-changing medical protocol in Mexico. This new treatment offers significant improvement in speech, communication, mobility and will be instrumental in helping her to get back the very full life she was living before this tragic event.”