Stroke victim MARTIN LACY reveals his fight back to fitness to mark Stroke Awareness Week.

I'M a very lucky man. After all, if you put a loaded gun to your head and pull the trigger, you've got to consider yourself lucky if all you are left with is a headache. I had no loaded gun, but there was certainly an explosion in my head: 15 months ago I suffered a stroke just a few months after my 50th birthday.

The loaded gun analogy is apt: strokes aren't bolts from the blue, seeking us out at random. Like that gun, they are an accident waiting to happen - and we possess all the ammunition.

Lifestyle, diet, family history, whether you smoke at all or drink to excess are all bullets waiting to go in the gun. And if you've got that ammunition, sooner or later you'll pull the trigger.

My gun was loaded: after giving up serious sport in my 20s, the weight had piled on (aided by too much junk food); like many of us I have a stressful job (stress doesn't cause strokes but it produces the conditions that do); I dealt with that stress too often with alcohol and both my father and grandfather suffered strokes at a similar age. And ten years ago I was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic (the form that comes on in middle age, especially among the overweight, and is an increasing problem in modern Britain).

Strange as it may seem, diabetes saved my life. It was a final wake-up call to change my lifestyle. I didn't change it enough to save me from a stroke but enough to limit the effects.

It was not a mild stroke: there's no such thing. All strokes are serious and the most serious are killers. Even if you don't die, many victims are left unable to walk or talk and even have difficulty swallowing their food. A stroke can affect your ability to read and write and even if you can talk, sometimes the words don't come out in the correct order.

A stroke, be it caused by a blockage in vessels carrying oxygen-enriched blood to the brain or bleeding into the brain, is a permanent process. Quite simply, part of the brain is destroyed.

But it's not all bad news. Therapy can relieve the conditions for the sufferer and the brain is a marvellous organ: if part of it dies, other areas carry out the dead region's tasks.

Immediately after my stroke, which affected my right side, my balance was poor, I had difficulty using my right arm and my right hand was virtually useless. My right hand seemed incapable of carrying out the simplest of manual operations; even stirring a cup of coffee was a task too far.

Yet within a few weeks, most of my functions had returned. I was swimming regularly, walking, eating healthily and feeling much better. I won't pretend it's been plain sailing - after a week in hospital, I had two spells of convalescence and then another long spell in hospital after a throat infection spread to my lungs and kidneys.

But things are improving. A stroke changes your life for ever, but not always for the worse. There are things I'll never be able to do again, but many of them can be put down to simply growing older.

I find shirt buttons a problem and tying shoelaces but with simple physiotherapy and a positive attitude I've adapting to performing tasks that seemed beyond me 15 months ago.

I've lost weight, brought my blood sugar under control and feel fitter and healthier than in 20 years. I've reduced my daily pill intake from a monstrous 18 tablets a day before my stroke to just five now. I'll always have to take care of my health but I worry far less nowadays.

But the biggest change has been in my attitude to life. Once my cup of life was half empty, now I see that it's still half full. I've put things into perspective and sorted out what's important and what is not. I've accepted I can't change the past but I can influence the future. Above all I've learnt to enjoy life again.

It wasn't too late for me to change and it's not too late for you. There is no guarantee that my lifestyle changes will enable me to avoid another stroke, but by facing up to the problems - and accepting the solutions - I'm stacking the odds in my favour.

Stroke - the facts:

- More than 100,000 people in England and Wales suffer their first stroke each year.

- Stroke is the third biggest killer in Britain and the main cause of severe disability.

- The theme of the Stroke Association's awareness campaign is 'Let's Get Physical', with the message that increased activity can reduce the risk of stroke.

- The Stroke Association recommends that people do a minimum of 30 minutes of activity at least five days a week. This doesn't have to be done in one go and can be broken up into ten and 20 minute bouts. Whatever you chose to do should leave you mildly breathless and slightly warm.

- And it's never too late to start. Research has shown that even people who have not taken exercise for years can lower their risk of stroke, as well as other health conditions, when they become active.

- To begin, the association recommends you could increase your activity levels by taking the stairs rather than the lift, walk to the shops rather than drive and get off the bus one stop before your usual one.

- Contact your local leisure centre for more information about the kind of exercise and activities on offer. It's important to combine aerobic activity such as brisk walking, rowing or cycling with weight-training and strengthening exercises as well as stretching such as yoga or Pilates.

- Always check with your doctor if you have existing health problems or are very overweight or pregnant.

For more information about stroke, call 0845 3033100 or visit the website: www.stroke.org.uk