By Luke Voogt
After surviving seven strokes by age 23, Inverleigh’s Emily Holmes is working hard to walk again.
The 25-year-old plans to ride her scooter for 19 kilometres in this year’s Will2Walk, then double her effort last year of 50metre on foot.
“It felt pretty good,” she said.
“I just want to do more than last year.”
Emily had six strokes on the right side of her brain between ages 15 and 23, and another on the left side at 23, leaving her with severe weakness on both sides of her body.
“Seven’s enough,” she laughed.
“I got into university when I finished school in 2012 and I had to drop out because I had one of my big strokes in February 2013.
“It was a bit hard but we just got over it pretty quick and soldiered on.”
Emily had relatively good use of her right side following the first six strokes, as each side of brain controls the opposing side of the body.
But the final stroke severely weakened her right side too. In 2018 she was diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic deficiency called ADA2.
“[It] means parts of my veins were breaking off and travelling up to my brain,” Emily explained.
Emily had previously aspired to be a kindergarten teacher and enjoyed playing hockey, horse riding and camping.
“I used to be really active,” she said.
“It’s probably just camping now – I’ll see what I can do.”
Will2Walk raises money for Stroke Association of Victoria, which supports survivors’ long-term recoveries and operates centres across the state.
“Will2Walk means exactly that to me, my will to walk, beat these strokes and help others learn about strokes,” Emily said.
Emily currently has carers to help her wash, cook dinner and other tasks, and goes to Barwon Stroke Support Centre.
“[At the centre] I can hang out with other young people that have unfortunately had strokes,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter how fit or young you are, strokes can still happen to anyone.”
Yve said her daughter had been a “trooper” from her first stroke to her diagnosis with ADA2.
“Emily was actually misdiagnosed with MS because they were the symptoms and she had a family history. She was having her strokes before we even knew ADA2 existed.
“I was asking, ‘why has this even happened?’ Emily’s attitude was, ‘it’s happened and we just have to deal with it’.”
Yve watched in tears as Emily completed last year’s Will2Walk.
“That was just amazing – I’d love to see her do 100m.”
Last year was the first time Emily had walked at the end Will2Walk after completing the 2018 event on her scooter.
Yve said the Inverleigh community had been fantastic raising money in previous years to support Emily, which she hoped could continue.
“If they could line the finish route, with social distancing of course, that would be amazing.”
Details: will2walk-2020.raisely.com
