“A stroke is a brain attack. You end up with shells of the people you used to know, and it’s frustrating to communicate with them. For caregivers, they might shout and say unkind things to their loved ones.

Both my late mother and husband had a stroke. With stroke survivors, you have to be tough with them. They might say no to rehab, or no to exercising, but you need to be the driving force if you want to see them get out of their wheelchairs.

Families are important in the recovery process, which varies for everyone – it might take 6 months, one year, three years, or even five years. It doesn’t matter. It’s the small wins that count. At the end of the day, it’s rewarding to see someone who arrives at NASAM in a wheelchair, to be able to walk.

NASAM or National Stroke Association of Malaysia is an organisation that helps stroke survivors rehabilitate. We have 9 centres across Malaysia and have people as young as 15 up to those who are over 80 years old.

What makes NASAM so different is that we try to have fun at the centre. Aside from helping them exercise and relearn simple activities, we have music, dance and even organised the world’s first Stroke Games in 2017!”

Photostory by Yasmin Mortaza
Edited by Sydrah M. and Mushamir M.

In the next few photostories, we’ll be featuring Stroke patients and the cast for a theatre play called “Transitions”, a story about a radio station founder who suffers an unexpected stroke after celebrating her radio’s 10th anniversary.

Transitions is sponsored by Yayasan Sime Darby and supported by the National Stroke Association of Malaysia – NASAM