Houghton Golf Club hosts the Stroke Survivors Foundation for annual golf day
The Stroke Survivors Foundation used its annual golf day at the Houghton Golf Club to create awareness around the work it does as well as to raise funds.
While most people are aware of strokes, many do not know about the Stroke Survivors Foundation and the support they provide. The Stroke Survivors Foundation (SSF) shared more information about what they do at their annual fundraising golf day at Houghton Golf Club on June 6. The SSF bridges the gap between post-hospital discharge and life–changing support and care. The foundation also endeavours to educate the public on the warning signs of stroke and the key preventative actions required. Liberty Financial Services is the headline sponsor of the foundation for a second year running.
CEO and founder of SSF George Scola shared how the foundation came about after he had a stroke in 2008 at 37 years old. Scola had been moving home when the next minute he couldn’t move his right side.
“Within the next hour, I was in an ambulance going to hospital. Lying in the ambulance I thought I’m not bleeding, not in pain, and I asked why then I was in this predicament. I did not know what a stroke was. I ended up in hospital for a total of eight weeks. I couldn’t add one plus one. I was kind of starting from scratch,” Scola retold.
He said education and communication is such a big part of the recovery process for stroke. It took Scola a year and a half once he was discharged to find appropriate answers, stages of grief and what he was going through. He tried to reach out to other support groups but couldn’t find any suitable ones. That led to Scola starting the foundation with another young stroke survivor, Charlene Marie who was 31.
The first project for the foundation was to raise awareness on stroke and money for the foundation. Scola did a walk from Musina to Cape Town which was 2 500km and took him six and a half months to complete. Thereafter Scola connected with the World Stroke Organisation, and was part of a workgroup made of seven stroke survivors and carers who were tasked with writing the Global Stroke Bill of Rights. The team launched the bill of rights in 2014.
The SSF has developed a Post-Discharge Stroke Support (PDSS) community which includes Strokefocus mobile app available for download.
PDSS offers the following key services to its members:
- Access to a community of survivors, caregivers and healthcare professionals.
- Peer support and care for survivors, their families and caregivers.
- Education, motivation and inspiration to cope with the journey to recovery.
- Information dissemination.
Head of brand strategy and sponsorship at Liberty Group South Africa Marees Bostander said their commitment to their client is ‘We are in it with you’. She said this sponsorship will enable people to access crucial information about preventative measures people can take regarding stroke.
Bostander shared that their 2022 claims statistics show that strokes were in the top five critical illnesses that their clients claimed for. The report also showed an increase in the percentage of strokes among female clients in general.
Infographic
The SSF dispelled a few myths about stroke with the following facts:
A stroke is a brain attack which happens when the blood supply to part of your brain is restricted. This damage can have different effects, depending on which part of the brain is affected, so no two strokes are the same. Stroke is among the top three causes of death and a leading cause of disability.
- Having a stroke is definitely not because you have been bewitched.
- A stroke can happen to anyone, regardless of their age, gender or race.
- Strokes can happen to anyone at any age, although the risk of having a stroke increases with age.
- Stroke statistics reveal that strokes are quite common.
- A stroke takes place in the brain. If the blood supply to the neurons in the brain is cut off either because of a blood clot or a disease of the blood vessels, those neurons die and a stroke occurs.
- A study of the risk factors found that 90% of strokes can be attributed to vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, all of which are preventable.
- The vast majority of strokes are ischemic (clot) and they can be treated. If a person goes to a hospital within four hours of the onset, clot-busting medication can be administered.
- Only about 30% of people will have a headache with ischemic stroke, so pain isn’t a reliable symptom.
- Strokes do run in families, the vascular risk factors for stroke, such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity, all have a genetic component.
Related articles:
