Creating a new normal after stroke: the inspiring story of Hilary Wehby

In 2017, Hilary Wehby, a stroke survivor from Jamaica, approached the World Stroke Organization about her desire to establish a stroke foundation to support and educate stroke survivors in her country. Two years on, the Stroke Foundation of Jamaica has become a new member of WSO and Hilary is about to launch her book, My New Normal: Reflections of a Stroke Survivor.

Before her stroke in 2015, Hilary lived a very full and active life; a mother of three children and married for nearly 30 years to a very busy husband. She was involved in a Christian Women's Ministry, and working full time as a senior new product development manager at a fast-paced food company. Life changed dramatically for Hilary when she had her stroke; she was no longer able to work at the place she had been employed for 31 years. Her life began to revolve around her therapy schedule and her family. She was not able to drive and had to depend on others to get around.

Hilary began her journey to a new normal with the belief that her connections in Jamaica with doctors, nursing and counselling networks, Christian ministry and the business community locally, would be useful in her mission to support and educate stroke survivors. ‘I am excited at the prospect of contributing to making education and assistance more widely accessible’ says Hilary.

Hilary has through the years, balanced being a devoted wife and mother, with outstanding scholastic achievement, professional service and social outreach. Describing her “pre-stroke” self, as being “a busybody-always-on-the-go- miss diligent-thorough-always-on-top-of-things person”, she now embrace her “new normal” as enabling and  empowering her. 

Hilary employed her always on the go attitude and connections across various networks, to build the new stroke support organization in Jamaica. The Stroke Foundation of Jamaica’s goals are to reduce the burden of stroke to patients, caregivers and the country through prevention, treatment and long-term care, and support stroke survivors to achieve the highest possible quality of independent life. The foundation is at the beginning of its work and is currently exploring collaborations with a range of stakeholders in Jamaica.

Hilary’s book, My New Normal: Reflections of a Stroke Survivor, will be launched at an event in Kingston, Jamaica on March 7, 2019.

Report from the 21st Conference of the Iberoamerican Stroke Organization and the 1st Latin American Ministerial Meeting on CVA. Gramado, Brazil, August 2nd - 4th, 2018.

Discussions at the Ministerial Meeting

In this congress experts on cerebrovascular diseases from the Ibero-American countries (Portugal, Spain and the Americas) and other areas of the world met in Gramado to present the greatest innovations in this field.  

WSO Faculty Members at the conference

The ministerial meeting gathered healthcare administrators and practitioners from Latin America, in addition to experts from other continents. They discussed the impact of stroke on the region, the organization of services and healthcare networks, successful models, challenges and potential solutions. We finished it with the expectation that this meeting will have a great impact on regional public healthcare policies, making them a reference for the world.

Professor Michael Brainin presents the WSO Social Commitment and Bill of Rights at a meeting for the general public

The 21^st Congress of the IASO joined some of the leaders in stroke neurology from the continent; we had lecturers from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, USA. 

Dr Sheila Martins and a stroke survivor present his testimonial

Lectures, Seminars, Workshops, Challenges, a spectacular location and interesting social activities contributed to the celebration of a very successful meeting, with 810 participants from 20 countries. Professors Werner Hacke, Michael Brainin, Patrice Lindsay, Valery Feigin from the WSO and Valeria Caso from the ESO joined us to enrich one of the most important international meetings for stroke in Latin America.

Next year we will meet in Costa Rica; another wonderful chance to learn, to share and to enjoy.

Discussion at the interactive ‘Stroke Challenge’ workshop

Presentation of the First Prize in the World Stroke Campaign awards

REPORT Educational Stroke Program in Brazil

Endorsed by World Stroke Organization 

The Ministry of Health of Brazil published on April 12th 2012 a national policy for stroke. The policy included the organization of stroke care in local networks integrating all points of care for stroke assistance (primary care professionals, pre-hospital Emergency Medical System and hospitals), development of stroke units, payment of tPA for the government and better reimbursement for stroke patients treated in stroke units.

To help the Ministry of Health implement this policy, we launched on June 20th 2012, an Educational Stroke Program, a partnership between the Brazilian Stroke Society, Brazilian Academy of Neurology, Brazilian Stroke Network, Brazilian Medical Association and the Ministry of Health and endorsed by the World Stroke Organization.

The educational program consisted of two sections; firstly an online component and secondly via a face to face meeting.

The lectures were prepared by stroke neurologists, based on international practice guidelines, and has trained all professionals linked to stroke assistance, including primary care professionals to improve primary and secondary prevention.

The online course is free.

Our online course trained more than 6000 doctors and 4000 other health professionals.








In 2017 we had several in person training:
* pre-hospital - SAMU (8)
* stroke centers (39)
* community hospitals (5)
* primary attention (2)
* neurologists (2)

Now in 2018 we are planning to renew the online lectures.




Dr Sheila Martins

Preventing stroke would allow me to be the mother; wife; daughter and professional person that I want to be without constraints or restrictions

Stroke survivor Hilary Wehby from Jamaica shares her experience of a life changing stroke and what stroke prevention means to her.

Before the stroke did you have any idea that you were at any risk of stroke? 

Before I had my stroke, I knew very little about strokes and considered myself "a healthy horse" I was usually the last in my family to catch any viruses going around and had 3 children via natural child birth. In fact I had no known medical issue and thought strokes primarily affected elderly persons. 

Celebrating the 20th Iberoamerican Stroke Organisation in La Paz

The World Stroke Organization were pleased to contribute to the Iberoamerican Stroke Organization's 20th Annual Congress in La Paz, Bolivia between June 7^th and 9^th.

On June the 7^th we delivered our traditional Stroke Teaching Course, dedicated to general doctors and non-neurologists, with more that 300 participants and lecturers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the special participation of WSO representative Prof David Spence, from Canada. Simultaneously, there were workshops on Neurosonology, Vascular Cognitive Impairment and a NIHSS training session.

Seven minutes in stroke - Luis M. T. Jesus

1. What inspired you towards neuroscience?

It all started in a summer school I attended during my Ph.D. back in 1998, where one of the keynote speakers was the phonologist Professor Andrea Calabrese, who presented results from discourse analysis of a Person with Aphasia that could inform health professional in their daily practice, and I was able to attend various other presentations related to neuroscience. Then, after completing my Ph.D. in 2001, during my first years as a lecturer at the School of Health Sciences (ESSUA), University of Aveiro, Portugal, I contacted Professor Alexandre Castro Caldas who generously sent me copies of all his work related to Aphasia. I then familiarised myself with this and other literature that lead to the first draft of a research project in Aphasia.

2. Why stroke?

Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, are the first cause of death and disability in Portugal and, consequently, one of the most frequent cause of hospitalisation. A significant part of stroke related costs are related to rehabilitation (physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy). Given the current situation in our country and the fact that I have been since 2001 an academic based at a School of Health Sciences, where these disciplines are taught and researched, the promotion of successful community reintegration of stroke survivors and the integrated care where several areas of rehabilitation are considered, has been one of the aims of our research.

3. What have been the highs so far?

The highs of my academic life have very much been related to the successful completion of my postgraduate students research projects and their ultimate success as academics, scientists and clinicians. Facilitating and fostering the research of young clinicians and seeing them succeed afterwards has given me the greatest sense of self-completion over the last fifteen years.

4. What have been the lows?

I’m not sure I could really call some of the usual challenges every academic has to face, a true low. I look at this as a necessary step toward our greatest achievements. The constant challenge limited funding imposed on you, and the short-sighted vision of some strategic decisions constrain the impact of some work you develop. However, it has also encouraged me to take risks and tackle scientific problems that keep challenging me to learn new things.

5. How do you balance work life with the needs of home life?

My love for life and those that are closest to me have always been my greatest source of inspiration. I was blessed with great grandparents, parents, brother and friends that always supported me along my whole life, and I was also fortunate to have crossed paths with the love of my life whom I have been married to over the past twelve years. We have two beautiful children I cherish deep in my heart. So I could say I struggle, like any other academic, trying to juggle my daily work with a full personal life. The right balance between work, people, sports, visual arts, music and literature, has always brightened my days.

6. Who are your most important mentors and how did you find them?

My greatest mentors have been my undergraduate project supervisors (Professor Francisco Vaz, University of Aveiro, Portugal; José Carlos Principe, University of Florida, USA), my M.Sc. (Dr. Gavin Cawley, University of East Anglia, UK) and Ph.D. (Dr. Christine Shadle, Haskins Laboratories, USA) supervisors. Also the lab directors at the universities where I worked as a researcher have been a great inspiration: Professor Steven Cox, University of East Anglia, UK; Professor Robert Damper, University of Southampton, UK; Professor Paulo Ferreira and Dr. Armando Pinho, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

7. What are your most important collaborations and how have you built them?

Establishing interdisciplinary and international research collaborations in life sciences has long been the top priority in my agenda. Our longest collaboration in Aphasia/ Stroke has been with City, University of London, UK. I was just about to start the supervision of a new Ph.D. student, so in August 2006 I sent an e-mail to Professor Jane Marshall to arrange a visit to London. Given the nature of the project we wanted to develop, Jane introduced me to Dr. Madeline Cruice, whom I have worked with ever since. We have both been members of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs) network over the last three years.

Luis M. T. Jesus is a Professor Coordenador (Associate Professor / Reader) at the University of Aveiro, Portugal lmtj@ua.pt