Being tested in all sorts of different ways

You need glasses for distance and reading, so you have varifocals. You're preparing for a 5km run later this month. So on the basis that the training has to be tougher than the event which you will be doing, your trainer takes you out on a run without your glasses.

It happened to me this week in my latest session with Emily Smedley and believe me, it's an interesting experience. I may have only been running around the perimeter of the football field at Derby College, but the fact that I could hardly see, while the field was full of clover and mushrooms, made it a test of any would-be athlete, never mind a recovering strokie.

I didn't pull a hamstring, I didn't do anything unpleasant to knees or ankles; I could say I'm almost looking forward to next week's session. And I am definitely looking forward to the event itself - it takes place at the Naturist Foundation in Orpington, Kent, on Sunday September 27. You can find more details about the event at http://www.naturistfoundation.org/BH5K_naked_run/ and if you are sufficiently motivated, you can donate to my fund-raising efforts at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MartinWarrillow.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day having what's left of my brain tested. These neuropsychological tests were last done just before Christmas 2013 and established that both my ability to retain information and my ability to process it had been severely compromised by the stroke: "From the top 5% to the bottom 5% quicker than Aston Villa' as I put it when I do talks on the subject.

My neuropsychologist expects there to have been improvement since then and this may impact favourably on my ability to do more paid work and take another gentle step on the road to recovery.

The four hours of pen-paper and computer tests is obviously designed to test different parts of the brain. Like Emily's training, it's supposed to be difficult - and it was. I'm no expert so I have to wait until I see the neuropsychologist in a few weeks before I get answers. But while I do have issues with the way in which some areas of the NHS have dealt with me, I have full confidence that my neuropsychologist and his team are doing all they can and doing it in the right way.

I can't close this week without mentioning Tamworth CAMRA Beer Festival, which took place last Thursday-Saturday. In pre-stroke days, I was part of the set-up team but I am now in no fit state to be lugging 72-pint barrels of beer across a room (and occasionally dropping them on my foot...) or jumping up and down behind a bar for hours on end. So now I just sit and savour the wonderful atmosphere and introduce Mrs W to some of the wide and varied range of beers on offer.

I'm lucky in that my stroke and epilepsy medication still allows me to drink, although I have to know my limits. And I'd like to close by giving credit to all the hard-working volunteers who make Tamworth Beer Festival and countless events like it happen up and down the country.

Not unlike the volunteers who do so much to help stroke-survivors and their carers, really......