A woman who had to learn to walk and talk again following a devastating stroke, has graduated from university.
Carrie Minagh, 42, was shopping when she experienced a piercing pain in her head.
"I thought I was dying", she said.
"All I could think of was all of these people around me, yet there was no-one to help me".
When she returned home, her mother Mercedes, realized she was exhibiting signs of a stroke and rushed her to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal bleed on the brain.
READ MORE: Galway woman's undetected blood pressure turned her into a 'walking time-bomb'
"I am very lucky that I was with my mother and that she recognized two of the F.A.S.T signs of stroke", said Carrie, speaking ahead of World Stroke Day on October 29.
"If I was alone and in my own home, it could be a very different outcome".
The stroke survivor, from Athlone in Co Westmeath, took her first steps to recovery after she was transferred Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, where she underwent surgery, to Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.
"I learned how to walk after seven-and-a-half weeks in hospital and the nurse moved my arm after nine weeks", said Carrie, who recently graduated with a degree in Community Services and Youth Work from Maynooth University in Kildare.
"The staff at Portiuncula were key in helping me to get back on my feet.
"The physiotherapist used to wheel me down and then let me walk back up to my ward.
"Every evening when my parents came to visit, I would spend time walking up and down the corridors, practicing as much as I could
"I always told myself 'today is a new day and things are going to get better'
"You can wallow in self-pity, or you can get up and take what has been dealt to you".
Carrie, who had her stroke in 2014, now offers peer-to-peer support in the Irish Heart Foundation's Life After Stroke Group.
Helen Gaynor, Head of Community Services with the charity said: "The after-effects of a stroke vary from person to person and recovery can be different.
"The Irish Heart Foundation can offer practical and emotional support post-stroke to help you will well and encourage you to work towards the things you enjoyed before".
She said the charity's Stroke Connect Service provides support to survivors via a weekly phone service, while the Young Stroke Survivors' Network runs a WhatsApp group and online and in-person exercise classes.
Several short-term courses are also available to help survivors overcome fatigue prepare to return to work.
The foundation is also hosting a series of online stroke talks next week (Oct 23-Oct 27) and topics include music therapy, healthy eating and entitlements.
A free mindfulness morning retreat on October 27 is also available. To register for the talks, visit irishheart.ie.
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