It was the speed of it all that shook Linda Watkins†. The 48-year-old from Sussex was out walking her dogs with her mum one morning two years ago. A week later, her mum had a stroke – the double blood clot on her brain rendering her disabled on the left-hand side of her body. She went straight from hospital to an assisted living facility. She was only 68.
‘My mum never said “no”, did everything for everyone and had been spreading herself thin for years,’ says Linda, who works in PR. Daily duties had included being the primary carer to Linda’s stepdad, who has Parkinson’s disease, and she was the first to admit that chief among her coping tools was pouring herself a large drink. Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol is known to trigger atrial fibrillation – a type of irregular heartbeat that Linda’s mum was subsequently diagnosed with; it’s also linked with a raised risk of stroke.
‘It was a huge wake-up call,’ Linda reflects. ‘I wanted to be active and around for my two daughters, who are 10 and 12 years old. [Seeing what happened to my mum] made me realise I could end up going the same way if I didn’t do something about it.’ Alongside a hard-wired habit of reaching for a glass of wine when stressed was a pattern of people-pleasing that would see her work through her lunch hour instead of going for a run. Change didn’t come easily; it would be another 12 months before she found the courage to look at her habits head on. But two years on from that wake-up call, life looks a lot different.
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