50 year old Marc Buchan is a retired fireman. At age 48 he had a major stroke.
"I was at training in the park and it just hit me. All I remember is grey. I woke up in the ICU after emergency surgery to save my life. I had five aneurysms in my head resulting in a major stroke."
Afterwards, Marc was weak in his legs and his right arm. "It really shocked me. I was fit and I used to be into surfing. Now I can't do that anymore. I never thought something like this could happen to me. I thought it could only happen to older people."
Determined to get better, Marc started rehabilitation training and was introduced to the use of ‘Wii therapy’ to help people regain movement in their stroke-affected limbs by practising exercises on gaming consoles.
"At first I thought, this is for kids! And then I decided to do it and it was actually a lot of work. I would do it for three hours nonstop and put weights on my wrist to make it even harder."
Marc has slowly regained some movement and strength in his arm. He still has restricted movement in his right hand, but says he’s doing his best.
"I can still drive and do lots of things like that, so I'm not completely incapacitated. My whole idea was to get back into the surf. So far that hasn't worked, but I hope to get better and better."
