'We thought we'd never hear our son's voice again'

A woman whose son had a stroke aged just 15 and struggled to speak afterwards says she feared he would never talk again.

Finley, from Portsmouth, was found slumped behind his bedroom door, unable to move or communicate, in July.

He was rushed to Queen Alexandra Hospital but could not talk for days, before eventually managing to say three words to his parents.

His mother Kelly, 44, said: "I can't begin to tell you how I felt when he said: 'I love you'."

Finley was set to play his first match for East Lodge Football Club on the morning his mother found him.

Kelly, a family support worker, said: "Like most teenagers, Finley liked to have a lie-in. As I went to open his bedroom door, I could feel some resistance.

"I thought Finley was playing a practical joke. As I pushed the door, I could see his feet, and I realised that he'd collapsed.

"Finley was semi-conscious, unable to communicate, his eyes were rolling, and he couldn't move at all... his whole right side was completely paralysed."

A CT scan showed two clots in Finley's brain, and thrombolysis, a medicine to get rid of blood clots, was recommended.

Kelly said: "They explained the severity of Finley's stroke. We had a window of 30 minutes to decide if we wanted Finley to have thrombolysis.

"They warned it could pose a risk, but Finley couldn't talk or move unless we gave him that chance.

"After a few days he started making improvements in his right arm and right leg.

"He couldn't communicate at first but slowly managed to get little noises out.

"With the help of the speech therapists, he started to say certain words... we thought we were never going to hear his voice again."

Finley was moved to the paediatric high dependency unit at University Hospital Southampton and spent seven-and-a-half weeks relearning day-to-day tasks.

He has been left with swallowing problems and apraxia of speech, which makes it hard to understand or express language.

Finley has also returned to school, but finds it too tiring to do more than a couple of hours a day.

Kelly said her son had also managed to maintain a connection with the football club despite his setbacks.

"They have said that he'll always be part of the team, even though he may never play a game," she said of East Lodge FC.

"He likes to go and dribble the ball around. Just being involved is paramount to him and his well-being."

Jake Woods, who is engaged to Finley's sister Maisie, will take part in the Portsmouth Coastal Waterside 50k Ultra Marathon to raise funds for the Stroke Association on Sunday.

The 22-year-old from Waterlooville said: "I'm running to raise awareness as my little brother-in-law had a stroke and is currently going through rehab, but it doesn't just affect him, it's a chain reaction to the whole family."

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