024 RUNNERSWORLD.COM/UK MAY 2019
WORDS:ISAAC^WILLIAMS.^ P
HOTOGRAPHS:^ DANROSS‘I REMEMBER
STANDING in the
kitchen and suddenly my
vision went – I was blind,’
says 55-year-old David
Swales. ‘After about five
minutes my sight returned,
to an extent. I put it down
to just another migraine.’
It was April 2016 and
David, then 52, had just
completed a local cross-
country race in Ickworth
Park, Suffolk. ‘It was
tough,’ he says. ‘I wanted
to finish in under an hour
but wasn’t quite going to
make it, so for the last mile
I gave it my all.’ David
sprinted up the final hill
and stumbled over the line.
What he had dismissed
as a severe headache was
an ischaemic stroke. ‘I had
a blood clot somewhere in
my body,’ he explains, ‘and
as I overexerted myself in
the race, it sheared off into
my brain.’ Six hours passed
before the severity of the
situation became clear.
‘I wasn’t thinking straight,’
he says, ‘because if you lost
your vision completely you
would do something about
it. But that’s part of the
of speech and language
therapy, physiotherapy
and cognitive therapy at
a Livability outpatients’
centre. ‘I have days when
I can’t talk properly,’ he
says, and his cognitive
difficulties restrict his
ability to think in certain
ways. ‘If you asked me
to count backwards from
20 to one, I couldn’t do it.’
On the whole, though,
his progress in less than
three years has been
remarkable. Eleven months
after his stroke, he went
back to work at the hospital- albeit in a less stressful
role – and one year to the
day since he was left
temporarily blinded and
unable to talk, David once
again ran the 10K race in
Ickworth Park. He finished
it two minutes faster than
the year before, despite
the fact that running is
now not only difficult, but
also potentially dangerous.
‘Running is not easy now,
I often need help with it,’
he says. That’s chief ly
because his limited vision
means he can’t see what’s
below or to the left of him.
Also, his cognitive issues
lead to extreme mental
fatigue. ‘If I have a bad day,
I can’t run because it’s too
dangerous,’ he says. ‘I’ve
run in front of cars before,
because I get so confused.’
He has a ‘safe route’ he
can run by
himself,
which avoids
all roads and
allows him
to ‘run in
circles’, but if
he ventures
any further,
a guide
runner – one
of his friends- will run
with him.
‘I’m very
fortunate to
have good friends who run
with me and keep me safe,’
he says, before lauding the
support of everyone at his
local parkrun, Bury St
Edmunds. ‘In my first
parkrun since my stroke,
100 runners were waiting
at the finish line to clap
- will run
and cheer me in. Parkrun
has been a lifeline.’ [David
ran his 100th parkrun early
this year.]
A weekly 5K is one thing,
but this year David will
attempt to go much
further: he is training for
the Virgin Money London
Marathon. In completing
one of the world’s premier
distance events, he hopes
to prove that his stroke
has not won.
‘I have never run a
marathon,’ he says, ‘and
there is a certain amount of
apprehension about it. But
I’m unbelievably excited.
This is me saying to my
stroke, “You tried to kill
me, but I’m still here, and
won’t be beaten.”’BACK FOR GOOD
David is raising money
for the charity that helped
him get back on his feet.
‘Livability mean the world
to me,’ he says, ‘because
I know I wouldn’t be
running without them and
my life would be a whole
lot different. Livability not
only provide great care;
they provide hope.’
In recognition of his
fundraising efforts and
endless positivity in the
face of life-changing
circumstances, David has
won three awards – The
Triumph Over Adversity
Award, The People’s
Champion Award and the
Elena Baltacha Award –
which he describes as ‘just
unbelievable, especially
because I’ve never thought
of what I’ve done as being
anything special.’
Complete recovery is
unlikely and there’s a
chance David will have to
live with poor vision and
cognitive difficulties for
the rest of his life. But
by running the London
Marathon, he will prove to
himself – and others on the
path back from serious
illness – that life can go on.problem with a stroke: it
impairs your thinking.’
When David finally
decided to go to hospital,
it was too late for anti-clot
medication – which needs
to be administered within
a few hours of a stroke – to
have any effect. Part of his
brain was permanently
damaged. However, because
he was in a stable condition
and a CAT scan showed no
sign of a more serious brain
bleed (a haemorrhagic
stroke), David was allowed
to go home.
But the following day,
unable to talk and barely
able to see, he returned to
hospital, where an MRI
scan revealed the true
extent of his brain damage.
David had suffered a 40
per cent loss of vision, and
cognitive processes relating
to speech, language, memory
and problem solving were
severely impaired.
For the next six months,
David – who had to step
away from his role as
assistant director of
finance at the hospital
where he was treated- underwent a programme
For stroke information and
support, visit stroke.org.uk.
You can also call the Stroke
Association’s helpline on
0303 3033 100‘YOU TRIED TO
KILL ME, BUT
I’M STILL HERE,
AND WON’T
BE BEATEN’
LIVING PROOF
Back in Ickworth
Park, scene of
David’s return
to running