A parkrun community are dedicating their next run to a woman who, three months ago, was close to death.
Kate Green, 42, suffered a severe stroke in December 2021, with runners at Clifton Park, Rotherham now raising money to show their support.
In early December Kate complained of a bad headache, but within 10 minutes she was unable to walk or talk.
After being taken to Rotherham Hospital, CT scans found she had suffered an acute haemorrhage pontine stroke.
Her husband, Adam Green, 44, was told it was a significant bleed in the brain which was inoperable because the of the high risk involved.
He said: “They were going to refer her to the stroke ward if she pulled through, but effectively the language coming out of it was ‘she’s going to die tonight’.”
She was in an induced coma, however after turning the ventilator off to see how her body would respond, miraculously Kate was able to breathe on her own.
As time went on, she began to communicate through blinking and small head movements.
She even had a special signal of raising her eyes three times to say “I love you” to her husband and seven-year-old son, Stanley.
Kate Green and her son, Stanley
With the help of doctors, nurses, physios, occupational and speech therapists, she has now got feeling back in her left side, with her right side beginning to get stronger too.
After a tracheotomy removal, she is now able to communicate vocally.
Adam set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his wife’s recovery and over night it had already hit £15,000, reaching its target of £30,000 in just one week.
The money will be used to pay for six weeks of intensive private rehabilitation to give Kate the best possible chance of making a good recovery.
If NHS funding is secured Adam said they will use the donations to fund essential alterations to their house to accommodate Kate’s return and to give back to hospital staff who helped Kate through her recovery.
Adam said: “The hospital have been just fantastic, absolutely fantastic.”
Adam and Kate Green, from Rotherham
When Adam told Kate the GoFundMe page had hit £15,000 over night, she broke down in tears.
He said: “I think it’s just overwhelming for her to understand how much she’s thought of, by friends, family and also the wider community. It’s been a really humbling experience.”
Kate was involved in setting up the Rotherham parkrun in 2013 and is usually the run director at Clifton Park each Saturday morning.
Parkrun volunteer and friend of Kate, Kat Westwood, 36, said: “A lot of her work friends are coming down to do the event to celebrate what we’ve raised and to encourage people to get to parkrun, because Kate always likes to try and encourage people to come along and she would be delighted if it meant that more people came.”
Speaking of the event’s importance, Adam said: “At the moment, she is really banging the drum again about how she’s made this recovery, it’s obviously part down to the incredible work that they’ve done in the hospital, part down to her own determination. But she said, part of it has to be attributed to the fact that she was fit and healthy to begin with.”
The parkrun fundraiser will take place on Saturday 26 March at 9am in Clifton Park, Rotherham.
To donate to Kate’s GoFundMe page, the link can be found here.
Kate, Adam, and Stanley Green
