Stroke patient raising £70k for Mexico treatment

Zoe Mitton woke up one night unable to move or speak properly

A woman from West Yorkshire who woke up unable to move after having a stroke is raising funds to undergo recovery treatment in Mexico.

Zoe Mitton, 52, from Huddersfield, spent three months in hospital after waking one night in July 2022 unable to move or speak properly.

Ms Mitton is hoping to raise £70,000 to attend a biomedical clinic in Monterrey, Mexico, to help improve her speech and mobility.

She told the BBC the treatment would make a “massive difference” with her recovery.

She said: “When I woke up in bed, I felt like I needed to go to the toilet but found I couldn’t move or speak.

“It was really scary and I was in hospital for three months.

“I don’t want to be like this, it is frustrating.”

She added she previously had a busy, active lifestyle and lived in different parts of the UK over the years, including Leeds, London and Glasgow.

Zoe Mitton in hospital with her partner Johnnie Turner

Ms Mitton said she lost movement in her right side, but “not being able to speak properly has been the hardest thing” over the last couple of years.

Two years of rehabilitation have improved her mobility and she can now walk unaided, but despite speech therapy she still struggles to talk.

So far, she has raised nearly £12,000 towards her visit to the NeuroCytonix centre, which specialises in helping people with brain injuries and offers treatment not available on the NHS.

The intensive therapy programme will last for about 28 days.

Her partner Johnnie Turner said: "I can't imagine how frustrating it is for Zoe.

"Obviously, it's just a nightmare because she's the same Zoe, she can think everything but she just can’t transfer it from her brain to her speech.

"Speech probably takes the longest to come back, Zoe's just so focused on getting to Mexico to do it because she's really positive that it will help her. They (the clinic) seem to think it will."

Friends and family are taking on sponsored climbing and running challenges to raise money towards the treatment.

According to the NHS website, strokes occur when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off and it can be life-threatening.

However, the quicker a person gets treatment, the less damage is expected to happen.

Some of the signs of a person having a stroke include their face drooping to one side, along with them not being able to lift one or both of their arms, and their speech may be slurred, garbled, or they might not be able to talk at all.

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