British tourist, 23, left paralysed after suffering stroke on horror 14-hour Thailand bus ride
Ashley Macrae was struck down after a blood clot in her leg travelled through a previously unknown hole in her heart
A YOUNG British tourist was left paralysed after suffering a stroke while sitting for 14 hours on a cramped bus in Thailand.
Ashley Macrae, 23, was stuck on the bus 6,000 miles from home when she suffered the stroke.
She was paralysed down her left side when a blood clot in her leg travelled through a previously unknown hole in her heart.
She said: "I had spent 14 hours on a bus from Cambodia to Bangkok. I was really squashed and didn’t really move at all during the journey.
"I was just there a few hours and started to feel very dizzy. I hadn’t drunk any alcohol but thought my drink had maybe been spiked or I had eaten something dodgy.
"I couldn’t walk properly and my face had started to droop. My friends said straight away that I needed to get medical help."
Speaking to the , she continued: "I had no control over my body and I didn’t understand what was going on.
"As I had slurred speech, I couldn’t even ask what was happening to me.
"As soon as I got to hospital they took me for an MRI scan. They said there had been a bleed in the brain and that I’d had a stroke.
"I said, ‘Surely not’. Strokes were something that happened to old people, not people like me. I’m a healthy 22-year-old, I go to the gym, I’m not obese and I don’t smoke.";
Now fighting fit, the pensions worker is ready to take part in an Edinburgh 5k to raise awareness and funds for other stroke victims.
Ashley, from Silverknowes, Edinburgh, says she is running to raise cash for Stroke Association.
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On her JustGiving page, she wrote: "The money we raise for this charity goes to helping stroke survivors who haven’t had a full recovery who may need help to speak, read or write again.
"And even just to talk about what happened to them as it really does traumatise you. It's definitely the scariest thing that ever happened to me."
You can sponsor Ashley .
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