Women unaware of stroke risk

Anne and Olive both attend the Stroke Association support group in Portstewart which meets every Wednesday at Flowerfield Art Centre.

One in eight women in the UK wrongly believes that a stroke could never happen to them, according to the findings of a poll recently published by the Stroke Association charity.

Around 30,000 women die from a stroke every year. The condition is the third leading cause of death in women in the UK and the second biggest killer worldwide.

The findings, based on a UK-wide survey of 2,000 adults, show that:

* Three quarters of women (74%) did not know that stroke is one of the world’s biggest killers

* Fewer than a third of women (28%) said they thought they would be most likely to have a stroke as they got older.

Tom Richardson, Northern Ireland Director of the Stroke Association said; “It’s extremely worrying that thousands of women don’t even have stroke on their radar.

“We know that women’s stroke risk significantly increases as they get older.

To find out more visit www.stroke.org.uk/women