Stroke survivor Paul Allen tells his inspiring story after being diagnosed four months following fall

From the depths of despair he battled back to pursue his dreams of sailing to France and travel the European waterways.

Born in Omagh, Paul came to work in Cookstown when he became manager of the then Safeway flagship store in 2000.

Although he has lived in Banbridge and Lisburn for 45 years, he says he still has a "deep affinity with Cookstown".

"My book has been some thirteen years in the writing for a whole host of reasons that I trust will become self-explanatory upon reading the book," he said.

"'The Final Piece Peace’ stems from my personal experiences after suffering an atypical stroke and maybe, more importantly, it details how I managed to navigate the quagmire that my mind had been reduced too in the months or indeed truthfully the years that have passed post stroke," he said.

Unfortunately, Paul's stroke was not diagnosed for over four months after it occurred following an initial fall and head trauma.

He explained: "As a stroke survivor there is much relief that you have indeed moved to that group of people who can class themselves as a ‘survivor’, but that comes after you have got over the initial shock and the ‘why me’ syndrome!

"At some point I read that one in four people over age 25 will suffer at least one stroke in their lifetime. Of those 10 to 15% don’t make it to hospital and up to 25% more don’t get beyond the first 24 hours. Towards 3000 people each week in the UK suffer a Stroke, that’s 152,000 per year, or to put it another way, that equates to one person every five minutes.

“Of the survivors only a very small percentage make a complete recovery, the rest of us have untold and often misunderstood brain damage and or physical impairments. It is said that no two strokes are the same but then again no two people are the same. We all have our own personalities, our own views on the world never mind many different levels of education. Then we should also consider our own place on any countless number of spectrums that exist.

"So who’s really brave enough to say which of us are normal to start with and indeed who can actually determine what a normal brain or mind is? Therefore when all things are considered should we really expect the medical profession to be able to fix the inner workings of each individual working mind? The answer is unfortunately no, it is actually really up to the survivor to rebuild that broken jigsaw themselves."

“Over the last ten years I have successfully managed to battle my way from the depths of ill health, despair, forced retirement and prescription drug addiction to find, design and develop a new me. I was then able to pursue my dreams of sailing to France and then travel around the European waterways for over eight years.”

The book is available to order now from Shanway Press in Belfast direct from their webpage, or via a link on the Paul A Allen Facebook page.