By Luke Voogt
After learning to speak, sit and run again, striding a few kilometres a day is nothing for 11-year-old stroke survivor Aashtin Artz.
The Bell Post Hill boy aims to clock 60km alongside his family this month to raise money for Stride4Stroke, up on his 50km in last November’s fundraiser.
“I want people to know you can get better from it,“ he said.
Aashtin survived a stroke on 6 May, 2017, partly thanks to his quick-thinking sister and mother.
“Everything was blurry, I was dizzy, I was vomiting everywhere,” he said.
“I remember my big sister coming in and she rang my mum to say that I wasn’t feeling that well.”
He remembered little except hopping into the ambulance, until he woke after lifesaving surgery and began his long path to rehabilitation.
“I was pretty worried that I wouldn’t recover and I’d be like I was forever, so I just kept trying my hardest and never gave up,” he said.
“I had to learn to speak, sit up, walk, run and all that sort of stuff again. (My parents) were by my side every single day.“
Aasthin’s family later discovered that headaches and a funny feeling in his hands weeks before the stroke were actually a series of “mini strokes“.
But a paediatrician then told the family it was a virus, his mum Amy said.
She was “incredibly proud“ of her son’s recovery after the terror of his stroke.
“He just smashes it – he’s so determined,” Amy said.
Seaching Aashtin at stride4stroke.org.au accesses his fundraising page.
