Simple daily tasks are often a struggle to remember for Shane Chiang who suffered multiple strokes last year.
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He said he sometimes walks to the fridge to grab the butter to only later return it to the cupboard.
Mr Chiang was 53-years-old and one of 371 people in Indi to have a stroke last year.
He has told his story to raise awareness for National Stroke Week.
Mr Chiang said it all started with a tingling sensation in his left hand when he got up to use the toilet at night.
“The tingling went up my arm to my face and down my leg,” he said.
“I woke Deb up and she called an ambulance and looked-up my symptoms.
“At the hospital they did tests which showed I’d had another stroke a couple months earlier.
“I get really upset because I can’t do much - I can’t look after my family.”
“It has affected my memory and I’ve had to leave work because I was making too many mistakes.”
Mr Chiang’s heart was 90 per cent blocked and he had three stents inserted.
He has since bought a blood pressure monitor which his wife, Deb, and disabled son, Jay, all use to make sure they are healthy.
Mrs Chang said she encourages everyone to go and get a health check.
“I went from having a perfectly fine man who now sometimes he can’t do the most simple things because of his memory,” she said.
“People should eat healthy, get check-ups, monitor their blood pressure and if you think someone is having a stroke call an ambulance straight away.”
Mr Chiang joined support group Albury Wodonga Stroke and Brain Injury AWSABI which provides therapy and guest speakers.
Wodonga’s Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse is also offering free health checks for national stroke week.
The Stroke Foundation encourages people to use the acronym FAST where people check face drooping, arms movement and speech and know time is critical.
Another Border stroke victim, Alison Armstrong, wants people to support a petition for more support services for stroke survivors.
Mrs Armstrong suffered a stroke while working at an Albury retail store in 2013.
“I was 45 and I had mental issues dealing with the fact I’d had a stroke,” she said.
The petition has almost 40,000 signatures at www.change.org/p/federal-health-minister-ley-stroke-survivors-need-our-support.
To find out more about stroke, head to www.strokefoundation.com.au.
