My hangover actually turned out to be a STROKE when I was just 23

Alex Bowles woke up with a pounding headache and put it down to a hangover after enjoying dinner and drinks with friends the night before.

She spent most of the weekend at home hoping to feel better.

But on Monday, the then 23-year-old’s head was so painful that she described it as feeling like “half her head was missing.”

She was also ill, and when her cleaner arrived the next day and noticed that Alex was mixing up her words and not making sense, she ended up in hospital.

There, doctors revealed that she had both a clot and bleeding in the brain.

As a result, she could not read, write, understand or speak properly.

Now 32-year-old Alex, from Brentwood, Essex, still struggles with fatigue and understanding, and was shocked when her mother also suffered from it four years after her stroke.

She said: ‘I had dinner and drinks with my friends on Friday evening and the next day I felt terrible. I had a few G&Ts so my headache is due to a hangover.

‘When I tried to go shopping I felt so rough I had to sit down. So I spent the rest of the weekend at home, getting sicker and sicker, feeling faint and wishing the pain in my head would go away.

‘I didn’t go to work on Monday and when I spoke to a friend that evening I told her it felt like half my head was missing. That’s the only way I could describe it. I was sick that night and the next day.

‘It’s so hard to explain how terrible it all was. My gut feeling was that something was wrong, and it was more than just a hangover. But me being me, I kept thinking it would go away soon.”

After feeling unwell for four days, Alex’s cleaner came to her home and immediately knew she needed help.

Alex said: ‘I started talking to my cleaner and I assumed I was being completely logical, but actually I was babbling and talking gibberish. The more I talked, the more worried my cleaner became.

“Luckily she called my mother, who rushed there and called an ambulance.”

Paramedics quickly arrived at Alex’s home. They realized something was seriously wrong and rushed her to Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

She said: ‘Initially there were some delays when I arrived. And as time went on, I got worse and worse. Lying on the hospital floor in my pajamas, I was an absolute mess. I kept being told to sit up, but physically I couldn’t. Finally I got a bed.

‘Shift doctors thought I had an ‘excessive headache’. But luckily a doctor thought it was best that I had a CT scan before I went home. After waiting even longer, I finally got the scan which showed that I had had a massive stroke.’

Alex had suffered both an ischemic and a hemorrhagic stroke – a clot and bleeding in her brain.

She said: ‘I had suffered a type of stroke known as sigmoid sinus thrombosis, with extensive subarachnoid haemorrhage.

“I was told that the stroke was probably caused by a combination of things: a long-haul flight I took to Vegas the month before, steroids I was taking for ulcerative colitis, and the birth control pill.”

The Stroke Association says the pill is linked to a slightly higher risk of stroke, but warns the risk is ‘very low’.

Alex spent two weeks in hospital, with her mother Karen by her side.

She said: ‘When I was told I’d had a stroke I didn’t record it because I felt so unwell. I was extremely frustrated. I didn’t understand why I had trouble speaking properly.

‘I could listen to my mother and know exactly what she was saying, but I couldn’t have a full conversation with her no matter how hard I tried. I kept coming out with random words.”

After his discharge, Alex had to rely on family and friends. Her mother was a constant, caring for her and taking her to every doctor’s appointment.

She said: ‘I became less confident, less sociable, and increasingly emotional and angry. For six months I could only speak to one person at a time. If there were more than that, the noise would upset me. I was also extremely tired all the time.’

Alex worked at an animal shelter and as an administrative assistant at a daycare center at the time, but the stroke left her unable to work for a year.

She underwent occupational therapy at Brentwood Community Hospital.

She said: ‘I had to go through a lot of therapy and brain exercises, which I found very tough. I learned simple tasks and I felt like shouting: I’m not a child. But I had to relearn so much.

‘I was hesitant to accept that I was ‘different’, which made me feel very angry and sad. Life as I knew it changed completely.

‘I’m still suffering from the side effects of the stroke. Understanding even simple jokes can be difficult for me. I also sometimes lag behind in conversations with people, which makes me feel isolated.’

Four years after Alex’s stroke in 2018, lightning struck the family twice when her mother Karen also suffered one.

Alex said: ‘I was at home when I got a call from my brother saying my mum had had a stroke and was in hospital. She had had a headache the night before an event and someone noticed that she was not speaking properly.

‘When I saw her, I realized she had similar problems to me. She struggled to find the right words and felt angry and defeated. I could certainly imagine how she must have felt.’

Karen, then 53, said: ‘When I had a stroke I felt very confused and weak in my right leg and arm.

‘For a while I couldn’t remember having any family or friends, and I had to put up notes in the kitchen to remind myself to eat.

‘I still have trouble with it now. When I get tired, I may stumble because my right leg gets lazy. I also get confused when there’s too much going on, but I just accept it. I’m very black and white now.’

Alex said: ‘Unlike me, mum was only in hospital for a few days and didn’t get much support when she left, I think because she looked fine.

‘Mum had cared for me after my diagnosis and then our roles were reversed, with me being there to support her when she needed me.’

Karen, now 58, said: ‘When Alex had a stroke, I helped her learn to read, write and socialize again. It’s only now that she’s been involved in stroke awareness that we’ve both realized how different we are to other people.”

After the dual diagnosis, despite still suffering from a stroke, the mother and daughter run a successful business together: they own and run Merrymeade Tea Rooms in Brentwood.

Alex said: ‘A stroke can leave us both frustrated, which can make running a business together quite challenging. But fortunately we have strengths in various areas, which means everything runs smoothly.’

Now, at age 32, Alex wants to turn this traumatic time of her life into something positive.

“Time has passed and they say time is a healer. “I’ve come so far in nine years, I’ve worked hard on my rehabilitation and I feel like I’m now in a place where I want to help other young stroke survivors.”

Alex is hosting a support group at Merrymeade Tea Rooms on Wednesday 15 November from 10am to 11am.

She said: ‘I’m starting a group for stroke survivors, or anyone whose life has been affected by it. Whether recently or years ago, we are all in the same boat one way or another.

‘For years I just got on with things. However, now that I’m older, I feel like my past affects me in different ways and it’s hard to find others who understand or can relate to it. Maybe together we can learn to accept the changes within us.’

Alex is also supporting a campaign by the charity Stroke Association to raise awareness of the consequences of having a stroke at a young age.

‘I think there is a stigma that stroke only occurs in old people. I hope my experience will reveal signs of a stroke and help people know what to look for. Getting the right support is crucial. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel as alone as I do.’