'I had a stroke on holiday in Spain aged 17'

A woman who suffered a stroke on holiday at the age of just 17 said she wanted to make people aware it could happen to "absolutely anyone".

Lauren Jean was taken to a local hospital in the early hours while in Almeria, Spain, back in August 2022 after collapsing in her room.

Her terrified parents, however, were told their daughter needed major brain surgery if she wanted a chance to live and she was airlifted across the country for more specialist treatment.

Lauren, originally from Clitheroe in Lancashire but now based in Manchester, told the BBC she had no idea at the time that someone her age could have a stroke.

The full-time singer-songwriter said she had been told by her GP and a doctor in Spain that her stroke could have been caused by a previously undiscovered hole in her heart, combined with the effects of contraceptive medication.

Strokes are caused when blood flow is stopped to a part of the brain due to a blockage or a blood vessel rupturing, and are most common in people over 50, but can happen to anyone according to the NHS.

"I had a great blood pressure, great heart rate," Lauren said.

"It can literally happen to anyone."

Lauren said on the day of her stroke she woke in the early hours of the morning and tried to get up to go to the toilet only to find she could not move her arm.

"I grabbed my arm to try and wake myself up but it weren't moving, " she said.

"I rolled out of bed, whacked my head on the bedside table and then it went black."

Lauren said luckily her mother was awake and came in to her room.

She said: "They got me back up again but I was choking on my tongue so then they had to come and pull that out and then it was a bit gruesome."

After arriving at the local hospital it became clear more intensive treatment would be needed.

"I get put in the back of an air ambulance, mum and dad are just given a postcode, they just say 'go there'," Lauren said.

"They said 'say things now before she goes because we don't know what's going to happen to her'."

Lauren underwent hours of brain surgery and a number of days in a medically induced coma before she came round to find her family in tears.

"I didn't know what had happened at this point," she said.

"I didn't know it was a stroke, I didn't know what it was.

"All that I got told was you were in the safest hands and I didn't know why I was there. But I looked at Mum and I was like, 'why are you crying?

"I felt like it was weird, I couldn't move my legs, but in myself, I was very happy."

Four years on Lauren has made a full recovery and last year even completed the London Marathon to raise money for charity the British Heart Foundation.

She said: "I was very naive I thought it mainly happened in older people. I'd never really heard of it happen in younger people. And that's why I'm trying to raise as much awareness as possible.

Lauren said she goes to the gym most days and is singing "seven days a week"

"Because I was so close to dying, as much as I hate to say it, just take every opportunity and just go take every day as it comes," she added.

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