Experience the magic that happens when six elite chefs join together to create an unforgettable and thought provoking menu. www.foodforthoughthobart.com.au

Hosted by Ryk Goddard, 936 ABC Hobart Breakfast presenter, this event will entice your senses and challenge your perceptions of stroke. Exceptional cuisine is complemented by a stunning photographic exhibition that tells the intimate story of survival. In Australia alone 60,000 strokes occur each year: one stroke every 10 minutes. Stroke kills more women than breast cancer, more men than prostate cancer and will affect 1 in 6 people.

Join Alistair Wise, Kent Sullivan, Philippe Leban, Scott Heffernan, Varuni Kulasekera and Waji Spiby will combine their creative expertise to serve up a thought provoking canapé menu, with complementing wines.

A recipe from Waji Spiby to get your mouth watering and to easily make at home.

Smoked Cured Salmon with Potato Roesti

A delicious, tasty and refreshing summer entrée, for brunch or a dinner party. Make sure the roesti is nice and crisp.

300 g Tassal smoked cured salmon
4 medium binje potatoes
100 g butter
1 green paw paw, shredded
1 continental cucumber, shredded
1 red onion, sliced thinly
1 lime, squeezed
60 ml palm sugar dressing
1tbsp green chilli oil

Serves: 4 as an entree

Peel and semi cook potatoes.

When cool grate roughly.

Heat pan with butter on medium.

Place one quarter of grated potato in at a time, flatten gently with a large spoon and cook till crispy on both sides.

Add extra butter as required. Keep finished roesti in a warm place.

Combine salad ingredients in a bowl with the dressing.

Place warm roesti on a small plate, top with salad and then salmon.

Drizzle with green chilli oil to finish.

Thank you Waji for delicious sometimes food.

Find this recipe and many more in ‘Waji’s Black Majic’

Image Via sneathstrilchuk.com

This article is from The Brain Injury Association of Queensland. Although written for ABI (Aquired Brain Injury) it relates to those who have experienced a stroke.

The true emotional cost of a brain injury often only emerges many months later.

Adjustment is the ability to adapt to change. When we choose to change something in our lifestyle, the adjustments we make to allow that change are usually viewed in a fairly positive light. Changes that are forced upon an individual, however, are often perceived as losses usually due to a sense of loss of control of one’s life.

Following Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), people may experience many changes or losses of previous abilities which may vary from mild to severe in their nature. People may experience changes in their personality, changes of a physical, emotional, behavioural, or cognitive nature, and changes to how or where they live their lives. For example, a person who has always driven a car may now need to use public transport. Even though they remain independent with transportation without the use of a car this change may be perceived as a loss because they can no longer drive their own car independently.

Adjustment to loss will not only affect the individual with the brain injury but also those who are close to them, such as partners, family, and friends. Those close to the person with a brain injury may also experience a loss of a friend, loss of independence and freedom, or loss of intimacy. Some may lose marriages, jobs, houses, income and their social network.

Adjustment to loss generally involves a grieving process. Grieving is an individual and mostly private experience, and at times may seem very lonely. Individuals who have a brain injury, as well as those close to them, may not appear to have experienced loss at all. In fact they are often told they “are lucky to be alive”. Sometimes these types of comments make the person experiencing loss feel all the more alone.

There are many emotions involved in the adjustment and grieving process. These can include shock, disbelief, denial, anger, resentment, guilt, despair, helplessness, hopelessness, depression, sadness and acceptance. Not everyone will experience all of these emotions, nor do they occur in any predictable way. The way a person experiences these feelings and their sense of loss is associated with how the individual perceives themselves and the world around them.

Strategies for managing personal loss

• Be willing to share your personal thoughts on these issues with someone close who you and trust and feel comfortable with.
• Write a story or journal about your own loss and how it fits in with your world view. Explore your life expectations and goals.
• Explore other ways to achieve your goals through problem solving. You may need to develop compensatory strategies to help you achieve your goals. You may need to enlist the help of specialised services.
• Identify your fears and, if you feel comfortable, start to explore them one by one.
• Identify coping strategies that work for you. Remember, what makes someone else feel better won’t necessarily make you feel better.
• Seek counseling from a neuropsychologist or a psychologist or counsellor with brain injury expertise.
• Seek support from organisations that specialise in brain injury.

Strategies for families, friends and carers to help others through the process of loss

• Listen to the person experiencing the loss.
• Reflect on what the person is saying to you without projecting your own feelings onto them.
• Identify and legitimise all of the feelings. Try to identify all the feelings the person is experiencing by putting a label on them, for example regret, sadness and hopelessness. If you can, help the person recognise why they have these feelings -for example simple things like “It’s understandable that you are feeling frustrated, you would like to be able to drive.”
• Interpret ‘normal’ behaviour, for example: “It seems normal to feel sad about losing your skills to drive.”
• Allow for individual differences.
• Allow time for the person to grieve.
• Help the person to problem solve themselves. For example “So you are feeling useless because you are unable to play soccer with your son, how can you feel useful in other ways?” Such as playing other games.
• Avoid platitudes like “You are lucky to be alive” and “How do you feel.”
• Don’t feel bad about expressing your own needs. The more clearly you can define them the better you can work out ways to fulfill them.
• Look after your own needs for fun, peace and quiet, for company and for a life of your own. It will make you a better carer, friend, family member or partner.
• Seek support from an organistion that specialize in Acquired Brain Injury.

Acknowledgment:
This article is copied with permission from Synapse; Reconnecting lives – bridge magazine Voc 3. Official journal of The Brain Injury Association of Queensland.

If you have any questions or need support please call StrokeLine 1800 STROKE (1800 787 653)

Experience the magic that happens when six elite chefs join together to create an unforgettable and thought provoking menu. www.foodforthoughthobart.com.au

Hosted by Ryk Goddard, 936 ABC Hobart Breakfast presenter, this event will entice your senses and challenge your perceptions of stroke. Exceptional cuisine is complemented by a stunning photographic exhibition that tells the intimate story of survival. In Australia alone 60,000 strokes occur each year: one stroke every 10 minutes. Stroke kills more women than breast cancer, more men than prostate cancer and will affect 1 in 6 people.

Join Alistair Wise, Kent Sullivan, Philippe Leban, Scott Heffernan, Varuni Kulasekera and Waji Spiby will combine their creative expertise to serve up a thought provoking canapé menu, with complementing wines.

A recipe from Waji Spiby to get your mouth watering and to easily make at home.

Steak Sandwich with Port Wine Onion Jam

The humble sandwich is underrated. A delicious stand-up option for your next barbeque. Serve with very cold beer.

400 g rump steak
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 Lebanese cucumber, cut lengthways into strips
1 medium vine-ripened tomato, sliced
¼ iceberg lettuce
4 slices continental bread
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
4 tbsp Waji port wine onion jam

Serves: 2

Remove meat from fridge thirty minutes before.

Season well and fry in vegetable oil on both sides till medium (pink in the middle).

Leave to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.

Prepare lettuce, tomato and cucumber on bread brushed with oil or butter. Finish with steak, port onion jam and the last piece of brushed bread on top.

Cut in half and serve.

Find this recipe and many more in ‘Waji’s Black Majic’

Recent research provides some new tips on whipping your memory back into shape.

Impaired memory is an extremely common problem after a brain injury. Treatment and rehabilitation traditionally focused on preventing further damage, and teaching personally effective coping strategies such as writing down appointments and tasks or taping a list of medications to the front of the fridge. New research suggests the brain is sufficiently plastic that memory can also be trained.

Train your brain

Brain training does boost brain power. Doing those crosswords, Sudoku, logic puzzles or games really helps. A long-term 2006 study (Long-term Effects of cognitive Training on Everyday Functional Outcomes for Older Adults) used 10 training sessions, each lasting 60-75 minutes, conducted over a five week period. After five years there was sufficient improvement to counteract the expected degree of decline in cognitive performance.

There is one catch to this study: The results were specific to the training. Learning physiologists often use the phrase “expertise is task-specific” to describe this. If you want to improve your cognitive abilities, train the abilities you want to improve. So if you want to improve your memory, train your memory.

Be healthy and well fed

If you are tired, hungry, dehydrated or don’t have enough vitamins and essential minerals in your diet, you can’t be expected to put in your best performance.

The latest research indicates that moderate iron deficiency, not severe enough to result in obvious anaemia, can change cognitive and behavioural functioning. A study ( Iron treatment normalizes cognitive functioning in young women ) looked at young women of reproductive age, comparing the cognitive performance of women who were iron deficient to the cognitive performance of women who were iron sufficient.

Iron sufficient women performed better on cognitive tasks, completing them faster than the women with iron deficiency anemia. After treatment with iron supplements, both cognitive performance and speed in completing cognitive tasks improved significantly.

This study demonstrates two very important facts: being healthy and having a good diet can significantly affect your cognitive abilities and, therefore, quality of life. You don’t have be displaying health problems from lack of iron or other minerals to feel its effects.

If you haven’t had a good check-up for a while, maybe now is the time. Make sure you get plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Supplements can be expensive, and it’s actually possible to overdose on some vitamins. A good diet should mean there is no need for supplements.

Learn by rote

Yes, rote-learning - the memorisation of entire passages, poems or plays – not only is occasionally necessary for everyday life but helps improve your overall memory performance. Researchers at the University College Dublin (Rote-learning improves memory in older adults) discovered that rote learning memory exercises cause identifiable changes in the brain chemistry and result in improved memory performance.

Volunteers undertook six weeks of intensive rote-learning training followed six weeks of rest. At the end of the six weeks rest there was a clear improvement in verbal and episodic memory, as well as physical changes to the hippocampus (small regions in each hemisphere of the brain which are key to both memory and spatial awareness).

This study is exciting, not only because rote learning plays such an important role in everyday tasks, but because it is something that anybody can do – anywhere and anytime.

Memorise a passage of your favourite songs, memorise passages in the newspaper - it’s all good training for your brain.

Learn in small steps

It’s called distributed practice, and it’s very good news for people who have difficulty with cognitive fatigue or with concentration because it’s more effective than trying to do everything at once.

Neurologist Dr R.L. Kaplan, writing on the Smart-Kit website (www.smart-kit.com), reports that there is an overwhelming amount of research indicating that breaking learning up into small steps will not only be much more effective in the long run, but can even halve the total amount of time you need to spend studying. Ideally, the breaks in between can spread over several days, giving the brain plenty of time to recharge.

When combined with the rote-learning mentioned above, this insight can make it significantly easier to memorise instructions, phone numbers or the exercises your occupational therapist gave you.

However, don’t spread your learning sessions out too much: leave it too long between sessions and you may forget what you have learnt.

Revise early

When you learn something new, you don’t gradually forget that information. New information actually gets lost very quickly, with the amount of forgetting tapering off over time.

Dr Kaplan reports that this fact has been known for at least 150 years, and that most research since then has only supported the first studies and improved our understanding of the speed of memory loss.

Unfortunately, that speed is “very quickly”. If you learn something new, you will have forgotten most of it within a couple of hours, making it important that your next practice, study or learning session happens quickly, and not tomorrow.

This fact may help to explain why distributed practice is so effective – spreading out your learning means that frequent study sessions on the one day catches your brain before you’ve forgotten most of what you’re trying to learn.

Conclusion

Putting all this research together leaves us with the positive conclusion that yes, you can make a difference. You can train your brain if you have a brain injury, a degenerative disease or no neurological injuries or conditions at all. Train your memory with recall practice, have short practice sessions spread one or two hours apart, and back it all up with a healthy diet.

Just using the principles of distributed practice and early revision will improve your ability to learn new information or skills. Add in constant rote-learning practice and you can improve your ability to retain information presented in any form.

Acknowledgment:
This article is copied with permission from Synapse; Reconnecting lives – bridge magazine Voc 3. Official journal of The Brain Injury Association of Queensland.

If you have any questions or need support please call StrokeLine 1800 STROKE (1800 787 653)

Self-management programs are recognised as an effective strategy for managing chronic conditions. The NSF has developed and tested an 8 week stroke specific self-management program, with findings indicating that the program is safe, feasible and generates good health outcomes for stroke survivors.

This 8 week education program is co-facilitated by a health professional and either a stroke survivor or carer, often delivered at a venue in the community and runs for 2.5hrs/wk.  Topics covered include;

1.    Introduction to the Stroke Self Management Program.
2.    Sharing the stroke journey.
3.    How does stroke make you feel?
4.    Attitudes to stroke recovery.
5.    Moving towards a healthy lifestyle: leisure activities, social support and financial matters.
6.    Moving towards a healthy lifestyle: working with health professionals.
7.    Moving towards a healthy lifestyle: learning to be stroke safe for life.
8.    “Where to from here”?

The program is for stroke survivors and their carers, including:

•    Survivors with cognitive impairment,
•    Language difficulties and/ or high levels of physical disability
•    18 yrs and over
•    Returning to the community

The self management program is now being trialled in Queensland. Seven sites have been selected to translate, test and evaluate a locally coordinated, locally delivered capacity building model of self-management support to enable local stroke services to deliver the stroke self-management program to the stroke population. Evaluation of those programs will enable the NSF to determine if local implementation of the self management program can be expanded across Queensland and Australia.

The selected QLD sites are: Gold Coast Community Rehabilitation Program, Logan Community Rehab Team, Metro North Health Services Community Based Rehab Team, Rockhampton Hospital, Toowoomba Adult Rehab Services, Townsville Hospital, and Warwick Health service.

For further queries please contact:

METRO

Where: Logan CBRT Metro Sth, 12th Oct 2011 February 2012  Contact: Sarah Patterson 07 3290 8900
Where: Metro Nth CRT, 19th Oct 2011 February 2012 Contact: Perry Judd 07 5433 8789
Where: SiBundall CRT Gold Coast HS Contact: Kim Ferry 07 5667 3512, 14th Oct 2011 February 2012

REGIONAL

Where: Rockhampton Hospital Contact: Annette Horton 07 4932 5100, 21st Oct 2011 February 2012
Where: Townsville Hospital Contact: Ian Meade 07 4796 2370, 12th Oct 2011 February 2012
Where: Toowoomba Adult Rehab Service Contact: Karen O’Rourke 07 4616 6124, 28th Oct 2011 February 2012
Where: Warwick Hospital Contact: Jacinta Fromm 07 4660 3900, February 2012

Managing stress when it feels like the whole world is on your shoulders

Carers have an important and demanding role, and at times stress can feel like a continual part of this. A certain level of stress is normal and even functional in life, however too much can impact in well-being.

Common signs of stress

•    Tightness in the chest.
•    Gastro-intestinal problems.
•    Irritability.
•    Butterflies in the stomach.

Strategies to manage stress

Strategies can make all the difference in moving through these periods of strain. Coping is a process of managing taxing circumstances that contribute to stress. To cope, people use different approaches, including:

• Internal methods to help reduce the tension and negative mindset associated with stress.
• Physical strategies to help the body relax
• Problem-orientated strategies, to directly solve or manage the problem.

You may or may not be aware of the strategies you use, so it is worth taking the time to have a look in your own toolkit. Taking the time to think about the strategies you use may reveal some patterns in your responses to stress and whether these coping methods are helpful.

Questions to ask yourself

How do you respond when faced with stressful circumstances?
Do the strategies you use reduce the physical signs of stress?

Research indicates that the strategies we use to deal with stress are associated with the way we adjust emotionally. What works for the one person may be of no use to another, so experiment with all the strategies you can and stick to the ones that work for you.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Examples of specific coping strategies (whether helpful or unhelpful) include:

• Avoidance
• Creating a plan
• Knowledge seeking
• Using alcohol or other drugs for relief
• Learning new ways to cope
• Sharing your experiences in a support group
• Soothing self-talk

Some coping strategies are more effective than others. Some may even cause continued or elevated stress, which can lead to depression and anxiety. Examples of unhelpful strategies are procrastinating, ruminating and worrying. Some people feel worrying helps them to manage the situation, but worrying is often an unhelpful strategy causing a person to get stuck in a relentless cycle of stressful thoughts with no solutions. Procrastination, distancing or avoidance also do little to provide positive adjustments to stress, and can prolong stressful problems, add to a negative mindset, and even lead to problems with anxiety and depression.

Knowledge-seeking, planning and directly tackling solvable problems are all positive strategies. However, they are most suited to stressful situations that are already controllable through our actions. When the situation is beyond our control, we need strategies that focus on creating more helpful thinking patterns, such as realistic and rational thinking, and the use of humour. Sometimes it is about using the most appropriate strategies in the right circumstances. In situations you have little control over use of emotional-focuses coping (use of self-talk to calm yourself, positive thinking, and humour) can be more effective. How you perceive the situation is very important, as in the old example of seeing a glass half full or half empty.

Some positive coping tools

• Schedule and prioritise talks to help with control and looking toward final outcome.
• Learn all about brain injury to develop realistic expectations on your situation.
• Source information on community services that that can provide support and resources.
• Join support groups and go on outings with other carers.
• Have regular talks with a good listener.
• Reward yourself or have events to look forward to once tasks are completed.
• Get family members and friends to help you out with duties/tasks to reduce the burden.
• Establish a list of your priorities.
• Learn to recognise and challenge irrational thoughts (eg  “What’s the use? I give up!”)
• Encourage and assist the person with the brain injury to be as independent and self-reliant as realistically possible.
• Exercise.
• Keep a diary.

After more resources or info?

Visit www.carersaustralia.com.au or call them on 1800 242 636 to find details for the cares organisation in your state, for information support and details on support groups.

Acknowledgment:
This article is copied with permission from Synapse; Reconnecting lives – bridge magazine Voc 3. Official journal of The Brain Injury Association of Queensland.

If you have any questions or need support please call StrokeLine 1800 STROKE (1800 787 653)

Acute stroke patients who receive three clinical protocols to manage fever, sugar and swallowing are 16 percent more likely to be alive and independent three months later - a collaborative research study led by Professor Sandy Middleton, National Stroke Foundation Clinical Council member and Director of the Nursing Research Institute at the Australian Catholic University and St Vincents & Mater Health Sydney has found.  This research has provided critical data demonstrating significant improvements for the management of patients following stroke.

Stroke is caused by a clot or a bleed in the brain and is Australia’s second biggest cause of death and leading cause of disability. While a patient suffers irreversible brain damage as a result of the stroke, there is potential to salvage surrounding brain tissue and limit the damage by effectively managing fever, sugar and swallowing.

The NHMRC-funded trial is the first nurse-led trial in acute stroke of its kind carried out in Australia and involved 19 acute stroke units across New South Wales and more than 1,600 patients.

The trial developed, implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of team-building workshops and education to introduce three clinical protocols to manage fever, sugar and swallowing (the FeSS protocols) following an acute stroke.

“Patients admitted with an acute stroke to hospitals that were randomised to receive our support to implement these FeSS protocols, were 16 percent more likely to be alive and independent at 90 days.” Professor Middleton said.
“These results are better than any current drug or treatment for stroke including clot busting therapy, and can be universally applied in acute stroke units.”

Published online today in The Lancet, the study showed that patients who received care in stroke units using these protocols were also more likely to have fewer episodes of fever, lower average temperatures and sugar levels, and better screening for swallowing difficulties.

“We found better outcomes for patients and consistently better processes of care in these hospitals because we created opportunities for teams to come together and agree on what they could do as an integrated service to improve quality of care. These results provide some of the best evidence to date in Australia on how to change clinicians’ behaviour and also evidence for effectiveteam work and good nursing care.”Professor Middleton said.

“Good management of fever, high blood sugar levels and swallowing can salvage brain tissue - poor management however can result in extension of the stroke and have devastating consequences for the patient.”

The study was a collaboration between the Australian Catholic University, the University of Newcastle, the University of Ottawa, the University of Western Sydney, the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, as well as a team of clinicians from NSW Health and support from the Agency for Clinical Innovation’s Stroke Services NSW.

The National Stroke Foundation is encouraging the delivery of such programs in Australian stroke units to support the use of the FeSS protocols based on the success of Professor Middleton’s trial.

“Recovery after a stroke can be significantly improved when health professionals are supported to implement protocols that ensure consistent and prompt clinical management of these three factors – fever, blood sugar levels and swallowing. Stroke is Australia’s second leading cause of death and a major cause of disability. The delivery of programs resulting in improved care for stroke care is critical in ensuring more Australians survive stroke, and that costs associated with stroke care are minimised.” says CEO Dr Erin Lalor.

Professor Middleton said she had been delighted to find so many stroke units eager to step up and adopt best practice.  “This is great news for evidence-based health care.”

Further information on the study and the protocols can be obtained from www.acu.edu.au/qasc

National Stroke Week 2011 ran from 12 – 18th  September. We know that many of you were actively involved, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you, and to bring you up to date with some highlights of that week and the month of  September.

Stroke Week in the media:

This is a count of the number of times National Stroke Week was mentioned in print, radio, on TV and online news sites.

In Print: 215
On the Radio: 80
On TV: 21
Online Sites: 36

Community-based activities:

•    In total, 3,966 Stroke Week activity packs were distributed this year.  Packs were distributed through partnerships, stroke support groups, online registrations and other NSF activities and programs.
•    Key partnerships continued with all state RSL clubs and most U3A state clubs, who were encouraged to hold an activity or display and received a free Stroke Week activity pack. Approximately 307,200 state golfers and 168,200 bowlers received a stroke risk factor checklist and a 1-in-6 poster for 2,800 of their club rooms combined.
•    50 Stroke Week grants of $200 were again available to stroke support groups (NSF, supported groups and friends of NSF) to support their National Stroke Week activities.

State-based launches and other activities:

New South Wales

•    The national Stroke Week launch was held in Sydney on Monday 12 September at the State Library of NSW, with Dr Erin Lalor and a stroke survivor speaking, attracting good media coverage from Prime news.
•    NSF held a display and public talk at Parramatta Library.

Tasmania

•    The launch was held at Constitution Dock and featured approximately 50 Hobart City Council (Tassie Stroke Week Partner) staff performing a 6 minute physical workout with every 6th person being identified with a 1-in-6 T-shirt.  The activity was led by 6 trainers from a local Fitness Centre who commenced proceedings with a 6 minute fitness demonstration. The Deputy Lord Mayor officiated and cut a 1-in-6 cake. A 1-in-6 resource table was set up in the council Customer Service Centre for Stroke Week; staff wore 1-in-6 T-shirts and a 1-in-6 educational featured on their Service Centre TV screen. In the north of the state the Launceston General Hospital Stroke Week Challenge featured 4 teams of 6 performing a 1:6 obstacle race. Both events generated good media coverage.
•    Nurse-led 1-in-6 event and blood pressure testing at a suburban shopping centre, Royal Hobart Hospital and Glenorchy Medical Centre
•    NSF staff presentations to 30 people at the Hobart Women’s Health Centre and Hobart Health Hub
•    NSF & CRU (Community Rehabilitation Unit) combined event for stroke survivors and carers

Victoria

•    Dr Erin Lalor and two stroke survivors attended an informal ministerial briefing at the parliamentary offices on Friday 9th September, in attendance with six members of the legislative assembly and three members from the legislative council.
•    16 NSF staff and 11 corporate volunteers from National Australia Bank (NAB) and the Trust Company distributed ‘1 in 6’ stroke risk factor checklists to commuters entering and exiting Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations on Monday 12th and Wednesday 14th September. 9,600 checklists were distributed in total, with 70 blood pressures checked on the morning of Monday 12th at Southern Cross station. A member of the general public later contacted the NSF with a positive response, after going to her GP as a result of her high BP reading that day.
•    NSF staff made presentations as part of events held at Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre, Footscray Hospital and Stroke Association of Victoria’s Stroke Week Forum.
•    There were 12 strokesafe ambassador presentations conducted during National Stroke Week in Victoria to a total audience of 522 people.

Western Australia

•    Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and a stroke survivor spoke at an official State launch opening and generated good media coverage.
•    A ‘Stroke for Stroke’ community awareness-raising swim was held in Fremantle and a ‘neuroacqua’ exercise session for stroke survivors generated enough interest to prompt 5 more of these workshops to be held.
•    The launch of Rockingham Stroke Support Group very well attended.
•    There were 7 strokesafe ambassador presentations to a total audience of 159 people.

Parliamentary statements:

Briefings were sent through to Health Minister’s offices for their information, with the following outcomes:

•    NSW: Mrs Roza Sage (Member for Blue Mountains) and Dr Andrew McDonald (Member for Macquarie Fields) spoke on National Stroke Week as a Matter of Public Importance within the NSW Parliament.
•    VIC: Ms Georgie Crozier (Member for Southern Metropolitan Region) used parliamentary adjournment to speak on National Stroke Week.
•    TAS:  Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne moved a motion in Parliament urging Tasmanians to support National Stroke Week.
•    FED: Mrs Karen Andrews (Member for McPherson) spoke about National Stroke Week.

My name is Maureen… in May last year at the age of 41, I suffered a massive stroke.

My husband recognised the warning signs and sought urgent medical attention.

His response prevented devastating, permanent disabilities or more likely… my death.

Life for me, still revolves around rehabilitation, but I’m definitely one of the lucky ones! I expect to eventually make a full recovery.

My family would like to raise awareness about the warning signs and cause of stroke, while raising funds for the National Stroke Foundation.

Saturday October 22nd from 7.30pm til approx 11.30pm.

Chelsea RSL, Thames Promenade Chelsea (Victoria).

Guest Speakers:

Dr Bruce Bolam Divisional Director of Prevention and Awareness, National Stroke Foundation.
Mel and Carol Hughes Mt Eliza / Mt Martha Stroke Support Group.

If you would like to book tickets for the dinner or make a tax deductible donation, please email Maureen M_lesjak@yahoo.com.au