By Asitha Jayawardena

Last month, I turned 53.

Launch of The Café SYSTEM CHANGE Magazine in 2018

In May 2018, with Dr Jenneth Parker, I launched The Café SYSTEM CHANGE Magazine at the annual conference of The Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems in Bristol, UK.

The magazine was for the public but it contained the summaries of the five research papers that were available on the SYSTEM CHANGE Journal at the time. Dr Parker, Academic Editor of the journal, penned the summary, or the nutshell version of each research paper; I did the rest, including the quotes related to the topic of the paper, the extracts of the paper, the information related to the paper (e.g., on terminology) and the reference of the research paper.

Once the reader gains an insight of the research paper, comprising the summary, quotes and extracts, they can access the full paper (or the abstract of the paper if the full research paper is subject to a pay wall). 

The Café magazine could be seen as a lighter companion of the SYSTEM CHANGE Journal.

The first ever Café magazine can be accessed here.

A stroke within three months of Café magazine launch

Within a period of three months of the launch of the Café magazine, on 14 August 2018, I suffered a stroke.

When I was taken West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth, I was transferred to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital by ambulance.

Then, at 46, I had neither smoked nor drunk alcohol throughout my life. My blood pressure was on the low side. I was just 50kg in weight. And I was not diabetic. Still, the scan displayed that a carotid artery was ruptured and another scan, taken within 24 hours, showed it healed on its own. Still, my right hand and the right leg were apparently not working, and I could neither stand up nor walk on my own. I began to write with the left hand hoping the right hand would work someday. Also, I was having a speech condition called Aphasia.

I was at West Middlesex University Hospital for one and a half months and then at Northwick Park Hospital for stroke rehabilitation for two months.

My wife, my daughter and my mother-in-law as well as relatives and friends were my strength. In these hospitals, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and other healthcare staff treated me well.

After coming home in three and a half months since the stroke, I continued to obtain the treatment and care from different hospitals and individuals as follows:

• Community-based occupational therapists and physiotherapists
• Follow up appointments at West Middlesex University Hospital (WMUH), Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation NHS Trust
• A week’s programme at the Speech Therapy Unit at WMUH
• 3-week Programme at The Queen Square Upper Limb (QSUL) Neurorehabilitation programme at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH)
• Appointments to physiotherapy and occupational therapy (including the splint on to the right arm) and the Botox injection at NHNN for several years
• An online programme of the Communication Clinic at the University College London (UCL) for 3 years, on term time on Thursdays  

Within weeks after the stroke, my wife started to applying to my right arm and leg a medication oil brought from an indigenous doctor in Sri Lanka. When we visited Sri Lanka in August 2019, another indigenous doctor treated me for a month.

Two more Café magazines in 2019 while recovering from the stroke 

As I was recovering from the stroke, in May 2019, I laid out the second issue of The Café SYSTEM CHANGE Magazine for The Schumacher Institute. It could be accessed here.

In the same year, I launched the trial issue of The Sustainability RESEARCH Café Magazine for The London Regional Centre for Expertise (RCE) of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), then housed at London South Bank University. It could be accessed here.

Then, with the dawn of 2020, the Covid epidemic encompassed the world and everything stopped.

Finally, I found a job at Royal Brompton Hospital in London in 2023 with a vision

From 2022, as a disability candidate, I started looking for jobs. In 2023, I took a course on New Directions – Re-starting My Career at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College in London.

On 18 December 2023, I started working as a Ward Administrator in the Adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU) at Royal Brompton Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Being part of a specialist heart and lung centre in the UK as well as in Europe, The Royal Brompton Hospital opened the view for me of “Healthy hearts, lungs and brain for today and tomorrow.”

Disabled but keep on recovering from the stroke

Six years later since undergoing the stroke, I take medication of Clopidogrel and Atorvastatin along with the supplements now.

I undergo electrical stimulation for the right arm and wear splint to it at night. I write with the left hand although the thought that the right hand would work someday is approaching zero.

When I moved after hospital after three and half months, I learnt to walk. Now I use a leg support for the right leg. I can climb stairs, take lifts and escalators and manage slopes.

I am well recovered from the speech difficulty called Aphasia. The neurological simulation of my brain is on the right track.

Thank you very much for all the doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and other healthcare staff as well as my wife, daughter, mother-in-law, relatives and friends!