Teenager’s cold-like symptoms were dismissed as ‘sinus problems’ – it was a deadly stroke that’s left her disabled… here are the unusual warning signs you must not ignore
Young people must not assume they’re not at risk of deadly stroke – and look out for warning signs – a teenage survivor has warned.
Matilda Stacey was 13 when she first suffered the little-known symptoms.
The teenager, from Northumberland, felt bunged up and developed a headache that was ‘constant’ and ‘not normal’ in the summer of 2024, during a trip to visit family in the US.
A doctor diagnosed her with sinusitis and prescribed fluids and antibiotics. But after she returned to the UK her condition worsened. Hit by exhaustion, she struggled to eat or drink and could ‘barely lift her head without pain’.
On August 16, Matilda’s parents took her to A&E, and doctors kept her in for monitoring.
Within 48 hours she’d developed numbness in her left leg, which nurses dismissed as a ‘dead leg’ caused by a prolonged period of lying down.
Matilda Stacey was just 13 when she suffered a stroke. A doctor initially diagnosed her with sinusitis and prescribed fluids and antibiotics. But then her condition worsened
The teenager would spend two months in hospital learning to eat, walk and talk again
In fact, tests would later show Matilda was having a stroke, caused by an infection that had spread to her brain and interfered with her blood supply.
Soon after her leg problems began, her speech became jumbled. While the right side of her body moved uncontrollably, the left side remained unresponsive.
‘It was terrifying,’ said her mother, Kimberly, 51. ‘She couldn’t explain what was happening. We couldn’t understand it.
‘We felt frustrated that no one could explain what was going on. We felt like we had lost her.’
Matilda was transferred to paediatric intensive care, where she suffered a subsequent catastrophic stroke. The family was told her chances of recovery were small and ‘not to get [their] hopes up’.
Matilda’s experience comes amid a rise in stroke cases in young people.
British researchers have found a 67 per cent increase in stroke incidence among adults under 55 between 2010 and 2018.
Over the same period, stroke incidence in older adults fell by 15 per cent.
‘People think strokes only happen to older people,’ said Matilda. ‘But they can happen to anyone. Even kids.’
The schoolgirl spent two weeks in intensive care and a total of two months in hospital. Her ‘slow, controlled’ recovery involved daily physiotherapy to teach her to eat, speak and walk again.
Matilda’s stroke was caused by an infection that had spread to her brain and interfered with her blood supply
Tell-tale signs of a looming stroke often fall under the radar. These include sudden numbness on one side of the body, sudden vertigo and difficulty swallowing
Today, two years on, Matilda still struggles with movement but is slowly ‘getting there’. She can even play her favourite sport of football once more, as part of Newcastle United’s Cerebral Palsy team.
She has also completed her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Mum Kimberly, who also has a son, William, 18, with husband Robert, 44, said: ‘We weren’t sure if she could do it. But we realise how strong she is, and how much she can still do.’
For Matilda, getting back to sport has been one of her greatest victories.
‘Being back on the pitch means everything to me. It reminds me that my life didn’t end when I had my stroke,’ she said.
Strokes affect more than 100,000 Britons annually – one every five minutes – claiming 38,000 lives.
This makes it the UK’s fourth biggest killer and a leading cause of disability.
Age, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle and diabetes are all known to increase the risk of stroke.
While numbness and slurred speech are the most well-known symptoms, other, lesser-known signs include severe headache, memory loss and difficulty swallowing.
