BRIBIE Islander Nikki Scheuch was living in Germany, working as a ski instructor and recently engaged.
It was the happiest time in her life, until she was struck down with a mystery illness.
“I was drinking coffee one morning when I experienced a strong pain between my shoulders, I couldn’t talk or move the pain was so intense,” Nikki said.
Doctors initially thought Nikki’s pain was muscular, but when Nikki started losing feeling in her body she knew something was seriously wrong.
Tests revealed Nikki had suffered a stroke in her spine.
“It was really scary, but I was determined to get better. I had always been an active person and there was no way I was leaving hospital in a wheelchair,” Nikki said.
“I was inspired by the other stroke survivors in the ward who were learning to talk and move again.”
It wasn’t easy but Nikki achieved her goal of walking out of hospital and amazingly two months later she was back on the slopes.
Despite her amazing recovery, Nikki, now back in Australia, still feels the ongoing impact of her stroke.
“Looking at me no-one would know I’ve had a stroke but now I become injured a lot more easily – I sprained my wrist giving a high-five to a five-year-old,” she explained.
“My pain threshold has also been disturbed by the stroke, but I’m doing exercises to try and get it under control.”
Now Nikki is taking on a very different challenge: rollerblading more than 140 kilometers around Bribie Island in support of the Stroke Foundation’s annual fundraiser Stride4stroke.
“I decided to take up rollerblading as a fun way to raise awareness of stroke – I already knew I would be able to run the distance so I wanted to challenge myself,” Nikki said.
“I hope I can inspire people to become more fit and active. I’ll never stop trying and it’s never too late to learn something new.”
Nikki has set a fundraising goal of $1500 for the Stroke Foundation but hopes to beat that target.
“I want to raise as much money as possible. There needs to be more awareness in the community,” she said.
Stroke Foundation Queensland State Manager Libby Dunstan said the funds raised from Stride4stroke would have an enormous impact on stroke survivors in the community.
“There are more than 83,000 stroke survivors living in our community and every dollar raised makes a difference in how we can support them,” Ms Dunstan said.
“We know that there are too many Australian families impacted by stroke and are doing it tough. This November we are encouraging communities and workplaces to unite with us in Stride4stroke and raise much needed funds to beat this devastating disease.”
Donate at https://strokefoundation.org.au/Donate.
A stroke of the spine, that sounds very painful. It seems like there is a never ending story of new first aid incidents that are occurring all around the world. We are bound to see more and more changes to our first aid courses that we run just due to the changing nature of the first aid world. We are always trying to improve our first aid courses so that we can keep the general public up to date on the best first aid training procedures. We look forward to you booking in to one of our first aid courses in the near future.