'Stroke completely wiped out my ability to speak'

A man who had a stroke that "completely wiped out" his ability to speak is encouraging more people living with aphasia to join his support group.

Chris Greenhough could not speak for the first few weeks after having a stroke 16 years ago, and slowly regained the ability after months of rehabilitation and subsequent speech therapy, the latter of which he is still receiving.

Now, Greenhough runs a Say Aphasia group for those also living with the condition which makes it hard for people to communicate, often after a stroke or brain injury.

Colin Lyall, who set up Say Aphasia after his diagnosis, said about 350,000 people in the UK live with the condition.

According to the NHS, there is no cure for aphasia, but those living with it usually improve with speech and language therapy.

During his rehabilitation, Greenhough said he received half an hour of speech therapy every week, which, he said, was "frustrating".

"I can now walk because I wanted to do it for my kids which all were five and under at the time. I wanted to get better," he said.

"I am continuing to learn different aspects of my speech, I have dyslexia but it's made me learn a different way to speech but it's continuing all the time."

Greenhough now runs the Say Aphasia group in Gloucestershire, attendees of which have varying speech and language abilities.

The charity was set up by Lyall, who is still unable to read and write after developing aphasia following a stroke 13 years ago.

"It's a fog," Lyall said of aphasia. "After two years, my fog was lifted.

"This is my life. I can't do my job anymore because I can't read, can't write, and it's just too complicated. So, after two years, I decided to do the charity."

Lyall said he focuses on staying positive about the things he can do and his charity, which now has more than 30 support groups across the UK, is one of those things.

"There's lack of speech, lack of reading, lack of writing, and lack of numbers - there's three people that can't speak at all but they can communicate," Greenhough said of the Gloucestershire group.

"It's a wonderful thing because Colin is passionate about it and so am I - we can do it together."

The Gloucestershire group meets on the first and third Monday of every month at the Malt House Cafe in Stroud, and on second and fourth Monday of every month at St George's Church in Tuffley.

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