Life is rarely as bad as it seems at the time

Life as a strokie (and life generally, in fact) is all about keeping things in perspective. I might be having a bad day or a bad week but there is always someone worse off. It's why I don't get too excited about the highs or too down about the lows.

Indeed, one thing the last 15 months has taught me is that there's not much in life which is worth getting overly stressed about.

Hence, when my local hospital rang up this week and demanded my presence at less than three hours' notice for a scan which should have been done months ago, I was mildly annoyed, but not much more.

When our weekend shopping trip proved even more stressful than usual in terms of crowds of people and noisy children, I was wound up for a couple of hours but the feeling soon passed.

When I woke up one morning feeling tired and stressed, I simply cancelled a couple of things that day and resolved to give myself the rest I obviously needed.

And then, one afternoon this week, I saw something posted on an internet group for stroke-survivors. "Not dealing with this stroke malarkey at all well," it said. "So depressed, never felt this bad." As many of us do, I immediately messaged the person involved, firstly to check they weren't about to do anything really silly, then to at least say 'Hello."

We ended up chatting for the best part of a couple of hours, during which it came to light that this person has not only suffered a stroke, but also has Multiple Sclerosis, heart disease and kidney disease. Which changed my slightly gloomy mood very quickly.

So when you go about your daily life this week and you're about to shout at the dustman for not emptying the bin, the kids for not putting their toys away, the road-rage driver who just cut you up or even your other half for leaving toothpaste in the bathroom sink, just take a moment to think of my new friend making the best of life in unbelievably trying circumstances - and get a little perspective.