The partner of a mother-of-three who suffered a sudden stroke at the age of 34 has said the support his family has received has been phenomenal.

A GoFundMe page to help Claire Carpenter live an independent life as she recovers has now raised more than €60,000 in six days.

The Sligo mother suffered a sudden stroke in early February after a bad headache turned out to be related to a blood clot in her brain.

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, her partner Ross Mannion said the support from friends, family and the general public has been “absolutely phenomenal” in the weeks since.

    

“It has been brilliant and my immediate network of family, friends and work colleagues have been phenomenally brilliant in terms of how they have been,” he said.

“When we set up the GoFundMe, we had no idea how it was going to go or not go and we have just been blown away by the generosity of people.

“It is just a very positive thing to see because it just shows you how good people are and how human people are. There are lots of people who don’t know us and they’ve written comments to say they’ve been through something similar and they understand what we’re going through.

“It has been a phenomenal response. Absolutely phenomenal. I can’t get over it. I really can’t get over it.”

Ross and Claire were in the process of planning their wedding when she had her stroke – a celebration that was twice postponed due to COVID.

He said Claire was really fit and active – and was the main focal point of the family, organising everything for their children while he travelled for his job with Connacht Rugby.

Claire lost the use of the whole left side of her body after the stroke – but Ross said she is making great strides in her recovery, considering everything she has been through.

“She was in an induced coma in the ICU for over a week,” he said. “Her speech has come back – her vocal cord was obviously quite swollen with the ventilator and the tubes – but she can speak which is obviously huge.

“She was on a feeding tube and she has worked her way off that. Obviously, we’re learning as we go with stroke and what can happen, but swallow is a big issue generally.

“She has worked really hard with the speech and language team sand he has got her swallow back up to a point where she is back on nearly a normal diet.

“The main physical issue at the minute is her left side. Her arm and her left leg are not firing as normal … Now, if you had seen her immediately after, even trying to sit and things like that were very, very difficult for her because she had no control.

“She was worked really hard and the physio have worked really hard with her in terms of ability to hold herself with her core and her neck as well, to support her head.”

He said Claire is now in a normal wheelchair and is slowly learning how to reposition herself in the chair and in the bed.

 

Ross said the couple’s three children Luke (14), Anna (10) and Zach (7) have shown amazing resilience throughout the experience and this week, doctors told them Claire may soon be able to leave the hospital for a couple of hours to join them at the playground.

He said the family is slowly coming to terms with what happened.

“The kids bring you through it as well,” he said. “They’re there and they are very resilient and very honest as well. They’ll see when you’re down or up and they have been a brilliant support.

“Even though I’m the dad they do support us all as well.

“I’ve got to the stage where I’m able to process it all. The fact that you do see, week to week, big improvements in Claire. That brings you on you know?”

You can donate to the GoFundMe appeal here.

You can listen back to the full interview here: