A Charlottetown woman has been named a national spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation after suffering a stroke at age 39.
Jen Bogart didn't seem like someone who would be at risk for suffering a stroke. She was healthy, exercised regularly, ate a good diet and was in her 30s.
But one year ago she developed troubling symptoms that she dismissed as a migraine. When she tried to call in sick to work, the symptoms were debilitating.
"I couldn't dial my phone. I held my cell phone and I didn't know how to work it, and I was seeing in threes," she said.
"What I decided to do was plug in my laptop and type out. I could type so I typed out a message to her by email and told her I wouldn't be in that day. And I don't even know what the spelling was like. I can't even tell you because I had to read it over and over to make sure it looked right."
She went to a medical clinic, but was sent home and things got worse later that evening when she passed out.
"I went down in a pile and I was on my deck," she said. "Anyway, I couldn't speak. There was no feeling from my face at all."
Bogart could hear everything around her but was paralyzed and couldn't respond.
Charlotte Comrie, CEO, P.E.I. Heart and Stroke Foundation says there are roughly 50,000 strokes in Canada every year. (CBC)
Friends rushed her to hospital and she was given life-saving medication.
"This doctor gave me the t-PA shot and that's a clot busting shot and so it saved my life because I was only about an hour into the stroke," she said.
The t-PA shot is tissue plasminogen activator. It is used to help prevent disability after a stroke.
Bogart wants people to know about the shot and the fact that strokes know no age.
"I was 39 and it can happen to me and it can happen to you," she said. "I get upset about it because it's scary and it's also something we can prevent."
Bogart has worked hard in therapy for the past year and the cause of the stroke has been discovered. She underwent heart surgery just over a week ago.
"I had a cardiologist who discovered that I had a hole in my heart and so the cardiologist has repaired the heart," she said.
She now stars in a national commercial for the Heart and Stroke Foundation to draw attention to the symptoms of stroke.
Charlotte Comrie is CEO of the P.E.I. Heart and Stroke Foundation.
'They come on suddenly and they may be temporary. Trouble speaking, trouble with your vision, dizziness, weakness on one side and or headache.'- Charlotte Comrie, CEO of the P.E.I. Heart and Stroke Foundation
"There's roughly 50,000 strokes in Canada every year," she said. "At least 10 per cent and sometimes as high as 15 per cent occur in people under the age of 50."
Comrie says it's important people recognize the symptoms.
"It's important to remember that they come on suddenly and they may be temporary," she said. "Trouble speaking, trouble with your vision, dizziness, weakness on one side and or headache."
Bogart is still working on her balance and doing more than one thing at a time. She deals with exhaustion every day.
"It was such a wonderful building part of my character to say I'm not going to let this be the way it is," she said. "I want to be who I am, who I was and I want to be better."
Bogart travels to Halifax this week for more tests.
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