A stroke survivor from Woolwich has been featured in a TV advert to bring awareness to others.

In the advert, local man Baz Kelly, who had a stroke in his sleep, tells viewers: “I woke up and everything was spinning.”

Baz is one of six people featured in the advert which launched the Stroke Association’s Rebuilding Lives campaign aimed at changing the way people think about stroke using stroke survivors’ real stories.

The advert first aired during Channel Four’s Gogglebox on Friday (April 26).

Baz, an IT Tech Support Consultant, had a stroke 11 days after his 32nd birthday in 1992: “I went to bed and woke up with a massive sharp pain in my head. I screamed out. My left leg shot up, then my right leg. I rolled over and was sick.”

Baz was in hospital for three weeks, followed by six months of physiotherapy, he said: “I woke up on the ward with everything spinning, my body felt warped. I lost my mobility in the right-hand side and part of my vision.

"My speech was gone. I couldn’t get out of the wheelchair. I remember the doctor saying, ‘If I were you, I’d learn to write with your left hand’. I was devastated.

“For months afterwards I felt horrible. I wanted to die. I still get upset when I think about it. Stroke is awful, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

Over the course of 27 years, he’s been slowly rebuilding his life.

He said: “The work it took me to get into the position I’m in now is unbelievable. I’d bounce a ball against a wall for ages to rebuild strength in my arm.

"I took up Japanese and Spanish – articulating words in different languages was good physio for my mouth and tongue.”

Baz completed the Thames Bridges Bike Ride for the Stroke Association, just one of his many achievements during his lifelong recovery.

His next challenge is the 100 mile Tour of Cambridgeshire on June 2 to raise funds for the Stroke Association.

You can support him here.

“This Rebuilding Lives campaign with a wide range of people - including youngsters as well as older people - is really important.”

“People need to understand more about this condition. And that there is hope.”

New Stroke Association research commissioned for the Rebuilding Lives campaign reveals that one important reason for the lack of stroke support for survivors stems from a lack of awareness of what stroke is and how it affects people.

Shockingly, more than a quarter (27 per cent) of the public don’t know where in the body a stroke occurs: the brain.

For those that know a stroke survivor, a huge 82 per cent feel that a greater understanding of stroke would help them support the survivor better.