Long-term Medical Conditions

Terry Jermy Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for securing this debate. This is also an appropriate time to acknowledge his more than four decades of service as a surgeon in the NHS.

I want to use my time to talk about strokes, because I, like millions of people across the country, have a personal account of dealing with this life-altering medical condition. At 11 am on 13 August 2013, I received a message from a relative saying, “I think your dad has been in a crash. The car is all smashed up and the doors are wide open outside the house.” I was at work in Cambridge that morning, and my parents’ house was back in Norfolk. Not being able to reach my dad, I managed to get a message to my sister to go round. She found my dad in bed.

Unbeknown to any of us, including my dad, he had been having a stroke all morning. Getting ready for work, he struggled to put on his coat. He forgot to pick up his car keys and initially left the house without locking the door. My mother did not think too much of it. He then somehow managed to drive her to work and drove himself to his engineering factory just a bit further down the road. When he got to work, they sent him home. They thought he was drunk.

On the way home, my dad crashed into a parked lorry. Dazed and confused, and in the midst of his stroke, he drove home and took himself to bed, thinking he had a cold. If he had not left the car abandoned outside the house, and if that relative had not raised the alarm, he would have been in bed for the rest of the day alone and he likely would not have survived. As it turned out, we were able to get him to hospital and we managed to have a further 10 years with him. My dad was 55 when he had his stroke. He was fit and healthy. He worked full time. He showed no warning signs, and then—wham. He had a full-on, major stroke from nowhere.

As a family, we did not know much about strokes at all. I had no idea that they came in all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of severity. The recovery, too, is variable. Strokes directly affect 100,000 people each and every year. Approximately one in four men and one in five women aged 45 can expect to have a stroke if they live to 85. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the UK, and a leading cause of disability. Tragically, nine out of 10 strokes are preventable through early detection and management of conditions such as high blood pressure.

Last month was Stroke Awareness Month, which is an important opportunity to highlight how to spot a stroke. I urge Members to look at F-A-S-T—face, arms, speech, time—the method to recognise symptoms. Is the face drooping? Does one side of the face feel numb? Is the arm weak? Can the person raise both arms? Is speech difficult? Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Check to see whether speech is slurred or strange. If these symptoms are observed, it is time to call 999—F-A-S-T. I welcome the Government’s commitment to a 25% reduction in deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 2035, but without urgent action on stroke, that goal will not be met. A plan is needed to tackle three key factors: early detection, treatment and prevention.

There are almost 3,000 stroke survivors in my South West Norfolk constituency alone, and they are all working to rebuild their lives. The prevalence of stroke in my constituency is 473; given that one is the lowest prevalence and 543 is the highest, it is clearly a significant problem in my community. While I have the opportunity to do so, I also want to note the Stroke Association’s incredible work to support stroke survivors across the country.