![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_309444915-3690-e1788533450141.jpg\")
\n\t\tBethany\u2019s life changed very quickly (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n
\t\t
\n\t\tBethany\u2019s life changed very quickly (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n
One week after graduating from university, Bethany Taylor\u2019s life was turned upside down, when a stroke left her believing she was just five years old.<\/p>\n
Until that moment, the 22-year-old had been enjoying the chaos of student life in her last year at\u00a0 Edinburgh University, with a dream of working in the civil service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I had it all sorted out,\u2019 Bethany tells Metro. \u2018I applied for jobs when I was in my final year of uni, but unfortunately hadn\u2019t got anywhere, as I needed to get some more experience. So, my plan was to go home for a year, get a casual job, and then at some point, move down to London<\/a> and live my life there.\u2019<\/p>\n Bethany was just a month away from graduating when she started experiencing severe headaches \u2013 something she put down to the pressure she was feeling at university.<\/p>\n \u2018I googled it and the suggestion was I was probably developing migraines, so I wrote it off as being nothing too serious. I\u2019ve always been quite a headachy person, anyway, so didn\u2019t think much of it,\u2019 she remembers.<\/p>\n However, as the days went on, Bethany began feeling \u2018quite tired and short tempered\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the weekend arrived, she visited her grandad in Lincolnshire<\/a> in the hope that maybe some rest would help her feel better, but instead, she continued to feel worse. <\/p>\n \t\t \u2018I was very, very tired and headachy. I slept a lot,\u2019 she explains.<\/p>\n After seeing her grandfather, Bethany returned to her mum\u2019s house on the Sunday night and immediately went to bed in her old room. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAsk Metro<\/p>\n Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about \u2013 powered by Metro and trusted publications.<\/p>\n The next morning, believing that she was sleeping in, her mum and sister, Jessie, went out to the shops.\u00a0When they returned at lunchtime and Bethany still hadn\u2019t surfaced, the pair started to worry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Mum came into my bedroom and immediately knew something was wrong with me. She told me it was like I was unconscious, but my eyes were open. I couldn\u2019t talk and had dribble all down one side of my face,\u2019 explains Bethany.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018She\u00a0was desperately trying to get me out of bed and I just couldn\u2019t. I could walk, but not properly.\u2019<\/p>\n Bethany\u2019s frantic mum called 111, and an ambulance quickly arrived to take her to hospital. There, the doctors discovered she had suffered a blood clot in her brain, which had caused a stroke, and transferred her to intensive care. <\/p>\n She was quickly put in a coma, so her body had the best chance of recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Apparently, the doctor told my family that if I was still alive by the following Friday, I would be okay. It was very touch and go,\u2019 says Bethany. \u2018They were all devastated and overwhelmed with disbelief at what had happened to me.<\/p>\n \u2018Mum ended up staying in the hospital by my side, and slept in the hospital for six weeks.\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t When Bethany woke five days later, her relieved friends and family discovered they had another challenge on their hands, as she was suffering from post-traumatic amnesia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bethany still has no recollection today and relies on her loved ones to tell her what happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018They said I thought I was five years old. It probably wasn\u2019t helped by the fact that all the people that were coming to see me were friends that I had when I was younger,\u2019 Bethany explains. \u2018I think that all combined into one thing, and left me really confused.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Apparently, at one point, I was convinced I\u2019d received a card from one of my teachers, as I was still a pupil at primary school<\/a>. Just the other day, my dad told me that I kept saying to him, there\u2019s a box of teeth under my bed, can you bring them to me so I can eat them?<\/p>\n \u2018I was acting very childish and I\u2019m relieved I don\u2019t have memories of that. I think my awareness came back very slowly. Doctors<\/a> and nurses were coming in every day and asking: \u201cwhat\u2019s your name? Where are you? How old are you? Who\u2019s the prime minister?\u201d All to try and remind me of the present day. Eventually, it worked.\u2019<\/p>\n While her early days in hospital are hazy, Bethany can remember the moment her memory came flooding back after about four weeks and with it, an overwhelming amount of emotions.<\/p>\n \u2018I turned to my mum and said, \u201cwhat\u2019s happened?\u201d, and she told me I\u2019d had a stroke. I remember being very confused,\u2019 says Bethany.<\/p>\n \u2018I thought that strokes only happened to the elderly, so I remember thinking that I must\u2019ve been the first young person it happened to. <\/p>\n To be honest, I was so out of it, I wasn\u2019t really aware of what happened until about a month later. I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t remember much.\u2019<\/p>\n Bethany spent another two weeks in hospital and\u00a0faced an arduous battle as she began her recovery. The stroke, which doctors believe might have been down to a rare side effect of the contraceptive pill, had caused a blood clot in the frontal lobe of her brain.<\/p>\n \t\t Previously a passionate bookworm, it meant she woke up not being able to do basic tasks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I had to learn to read and write again. I was so tired as well, which is something that still impacts me,\u2019 remembers Bethany.<\/p>\n After leaving hospital, she continued her recovery, going to speech therapy and working with an occupational therapist, both in and out of hospital.<\/p>\n \u2018It was very helpful\u2019, Bethany explains. \u2018We would go to the shops and buy ingredients and cook meals. My therapist made me a plan and helped me organise days. I found a planner the other day, with a note saying \u201ctry and get up at 1pm\u201d. At that point, I had been out of hospital for two years and was still struggling with chronic fatigue.\u2019<\/p>\n Bethany also had to come to terms with the fact that while recovering she had \u2018lost\u2019 years of her life.<\/p>\n \u2018About five years after my stroke, I was chatting to my mum about how I was looking forward to doing everything I wanted to do in my early twenties. But she reminded me I was much older now and the life I wanted back then is different now,\u2019 she remembers.<\/p>\n \u2018When I realised what she was saying, I just burst into tears as I grieved for the life I could\u2019ve led.\u2019<\/p>\n Seven years on from her stroke, recovery been a long process. \u2018In the beginning, I was sleeping fifteen hours a night, and I was unable to live a life. Now, I\u2019m back to sleeping a normal amount,\u2019 Bethany explains.<\/p>\n \t\t Currently, she\u2019s seeing a very familiar story to hers play out on Coronation Street after teenage character Betsy Swain<\/a> (Sydney<\/a> Martin) suffered a stroke as a result of a blood clot caused by damage to an artery, when her boyfriend put pressure on her neck while they were having sex.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I was struck by how much the actress [Sydney Martin] must\u2019ve listened to the people during her research\u2019, says Bethany. \u2018Our strokes were very different in some ways, but she is accurately portraying how it impacted me and what recovery was like.<\/p>\n \u2018Plus, people often think strokes only happen to old people \u2013 but it clearly doesn\u2019t. Betsy\u2019s story is a really good way to show that it can happen to anyone.\u2019<\/p>\n Just like the Coronation Street character, Bethany knows exactly what it\u2019s like to not leave her house after the stroke, saysing that she felt felt \u2019embarrassed\u2019 and \u2018worried\u2019 about all she\u2019d been through. <\/p>\n \t\t However, she also believes she made such a large amount of progress in facing the outside world because of her friends and\u2019amazing family\u2019.<\/p>\n Now 29, Bethany works as a disability<\/a> support worker, helping disabled people do their job \u2013 a career she believes she would never have found if she didn\u2019t have her stroke.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s really rewarding \u2013 I help them, but I\u2019m also helping myself because I\u2019m continuing to work and use my brain.\u2019<\/p>\n During her recovery, Bethany was also supported by the Stroke Association charity<\/a>, who have a telephone line called Here For You, which connects stroke survivors and carers to trained volunteers. Today, she\u2019s a volunteer<\/a> herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I think that is one of the things that has helped me the most, talking to people who have been through the same,\u2019 she adds.<\/p>\n \u2018The volunteer who spoke to me was a young person who had a stroke, and she was saying, \u201cthis is what my life looks like now\u201d, and it made me realise, my life doesn\u2019t have to be over because I\u2019ve had a stroke.\u2019<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_309444905-8cf4-e1788536765282.jpg\")
\n\t\tBethany graduated in Edinburgh, but then things very quickly changed (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_309444912-cc12.jpg\")
\n\t\tShe had plans to work in the civil service (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_309444914-c8c6-e1788533403595.jpg\")
\n\t\tA stroke may have changed the future Bethany once imagined for herself, but it didn\u2019t take away her future altogether (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_304524869-7347-e1785841893249.jpg\")
\n\t\tBetsy in Coronation Street is in recovery after having a stroke (Picture: ITV)<\/p>\n![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_310658204-ff0e.jpg\")
\n\t\tBethany sharing a picture with her best friend at her wedding a few weeks ago (Picture: Supplied)<\/p>\n
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