Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about strokes. This morning at a breakfast the Parliamentary Heart Foundation and Stroke Foundation Friendship Group heard the story of a young woman who had experienced a stroke and been told that she could not walk again, that she would be paralysed on her left side for the rest of her life. But her determination was superb in that she went through rehabilitation and recovered. Her vision always was her two children. Those two children were the drivers for her determination to again be the mother who could support and nurture them and give them the environment they needed for growing up.

Australians often overlook the prevalence of stroke within Australian society. It is within the top five significant causes of death. The other thing that surprises many people is that young children also experience strokes. That leaves the carer of the child trying to grapple with the fact that strokes are often seen as being applicable to those over 50 or the elderly. But in children strokes have a different impact altogether.

I would encourage all members of this House to look at the Stroke Foundation website and to connect with their electorates and get information out so that people become much more aware of the impact of strokes on individuals.