THERE are more than 100,000 strokes in the UK each year – that’s one every five minutes – changing the lives of individuals and families.

Stroke is the life-threatening condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. It’s the fourth single cause of death in this country but there are more than 1.2 million stroke survivors nationally.

Behind the bald facts and figures lie individual dramas often, for survivors, involving lengthy hospital stays and months of rehabilitation. The disruption to lives is huge – for the stroke patient and his or her family – but there are some silver linings to these particular clouds.

In Bolton, we have a 19-strong Community Stroke Team that is currently celebrating 10 years of helping patients and their families to get back to health, and normality.

Before, patients might have had to spend a very long time in hospital before they could go home.

Now the multi-disciplinary team can work both at the Royal Bolton Hospital and then in the community to lend their dedicated skills to literally getting people back on their feet.

That means that stroke sufferers like 72-year-old Christopher Kimpton can continue to improve at home, backed by the care of this caring team of experts.

And it also means that family members like Christopher’s wife Renate not only have the support of the team, but can learn from them to help her husband even more.

Their story began last May 2, The Kimptons’ grand-daughter had been visiting their Harwood home.

“We’d been laughing and joking as usual then Chris had to take the car to the garage,” recalled Mrs Kimpton. “He was fine, very relaxed. He even took the dogs with him.”

At the garage, though, Mr Kimpton suddenly collapsed. Luckily, a woman at the garage recognised that he was having a stroke and immediately called an ambulance which took him to Salford Royal Hospital.

Initially, the prognosis seemed poor but, within days, Mr Kimpton had rallied. His family, however, were warned he might never walk or talk again. He spent two weeks at Salford before being transferred to the Royal Bolton Hospital, but was in hospital for four months before being allowed home.

The stroke badly affected his right side. He could not speak and struggled to walk. At first, Mrs Kimpton was unsure what to do for him but, fortunately, she quickly had the backing of the Community Stroke Team led by principal service lead, Simon Crozier.

They try to make their first visit within three days of a patient going home. The team includes occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists.

In Mr Kimpton’s case, someone comes each day to help him with his walking, help strengthen his affected right side and encourage his speech. He has already made great improvement although there is still a way to go.

“It was strange at first because everything at home was the same but completely different,” explained Mrs Kimpton. “It seemed very daunting but the team has been amazing.

“We just wanted to get Chris home and when he came through the door he was beaming!

“I’ve learned how to help him myself. I even filmed Simon helping Chris so I can copy what he does.

“The family have been so supportive and it’s made all the difference in the world to Chris to be at home with his family. He is definitely recovering faster here.”

Said Mr Crozier: “We want to work with families to help patients get better quicker. We know they are better off recovering at home and love to see the progress made.”