Mr McLeod discussed how life changed for people who had strokes, the difficult road recovering what was lost and how northern suburbs residents needed access to rehabilitation.
Mr McLeod’s wife first noticed he was slurring words after a hit of golf before suffering a stroke several years ago.
He stayed overnight at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, where he awoke unable to move.
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READ NOW“I was shocked, paralysed, no voice and then no movement in my right side,” he said.
Mr McLeod spent a month there and then a month in Osborne Park Hospital before signing himself out, hoping to recover more quickly on his own.
“I promptly booked a three-week holiday in Bali thinking I’d swim every day and exercise in the gymnasium,” he said.
“After nine days my hand was jumping, my leg was jumping – I couldn’t handle it.
“I had to cut my holiday short and that came through loud and clear that it wasn’t just something that I could fix, even though I had a lot of experience in training, so I was going to be this way inclined all the time.
“It’s a complete, 100 per cent change of lifestyle. Nothing is the same; you drop things, you pick up things and you can’t do it, but I struggle on.
“There are no terribly convenient facilities for exercise programs at this stage, so that’s why I’m here to tell my story.”
The Northern Suburbs Stroke Support Group meets at the Wanneroo Recreation Centre, Scenic Drive, at 3pm on the second Friday of each month.