Actress appears on Stafford stage seven months after stroke

Andrea Keady said she is nearly fully recovered from her stroke and just has a few limitations in her fine motor skills

A woman said she was thrilled to have performed in a play seven months after she suffered a stroke and collapsed.

Andrea Keady, 46, from Stafford, was due to appear in an amateur dramatics production in May.

Four weeks before the dress rehearsal, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

The play was postponed while she recovered and Ms Keady said it was "absolutely brilliant" to perform in the opening night on Tuesday.

She said:"My first thing was 'oh my God, I'm not going to be able to do the play.' My doctor thought my priorities were off!"

The 46-year-old said the stroke came out of the blue as she had been out walking the day before, but then woke on the Monday morning and "my right side felt a bit tingly".

"It just got worse and worse until the whole of my right side was completely paralysed, it wouldn't hold me up," she told BBC Radio Stoke.

The cast of Memory of Water waited for Ms Keady's recovery to perform at the Gatehouse Theatre

She was taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital where doctors told her she had suffered a stroke.

The play, Memory of Water, was postponed at the Gatehouse Theatre by the Stafford Players while she recovered and Ms Keady said she was delighted to be able to take part.

"It's probably slightly more tiring than it used to be and maybe takes a little bit more brain power to get the lines to stay in my head but other than that, it's been fantastic," she said.

While she said she was nearly back to normal, there are still a few limitations in her right hand with fine motor skills and she struggles to write.

"That's probably my biggest frustration, I'm a scribbler so I love notebooks and things like that, but my writing is basically like it was when I was about six!"