The family of a woman who had a major stroke in Swindon last year are hoping to raise funds to make their home more wheelchair-accessible to get her home for Christmas.

On March 2, 54-year-old Sam Farrow suffered a sudden stroke while shopping in the town centre, after spending the morning laughing and joking with her daughter Chloe over breakfast at The Dockle Farmhouse pub.

She was taken to Great Western Hospital, but she was transferred to Oxford for an emergency craniotomy.

Despite being paralysed on the left-hand side, suffering blood clots in both lungs, a further bleed on the brain and being told her cranioplasty would not be until November, Sam has pulled through.

Sam Farrow's family and friends are fundraising to get her home for Christmas following a major stroke earlier this year (Image: Chloe Brown)

Her husband Jeff said: “I say to her, it’s a long walk, we’re walking from Covingham to Coate Water and we’re a third of the way there. Every time I go to visit, she will say that we’re one step closer to Coate Water.

“We’ve been married for 33 years and we’ve grown up together. She’s constantly looked after her mum, dad and brother who were all wheelchair bound - on top of a full time job and raising her own family.

"Her brother died last April and she said it was our time now and we would start having holidays. The first thing she said to me when she came round was ‘sorry I can’t take you on holiday now.’ Sam never thinks about herself.  

“If her granddaughter wants a snow angel and there’s no snow, grandma gets the flour out, spreads it on the floor and lets her do snow angels in the kitchen. Nothing was ever too much for Sam.”

Her family still do not know the extent of her disabilities and the subsequent renovations they will need to make on the house, but they have launched a fundraiser to help get a hot tub, so Sam can continue with daily physiotherapy as part of her rehabilitation. 

Sam’s best friend, Kirsty Williams added: “If you’re lucky enough to have Sam as a friend, you’re luckier than you know. I’ve known her to have about 14 or 15 people round at Christmas and if anyone is alone, she will feed them, get them presents and include them in everything.

“To see her then and see her now is almost like two different people. If she had forgotten how she was it probably wouldn’t have been so hard, she doesn’t even look the same at the moment.

"She was the person everyone would go to, but now she has to rely on other people, and she’s just not comfortable with that. We’re trying to give her as much independence back as possible.

“Before this, I didn’t appreciate how strokes not only rip the person’s life apart, but also the whole family, and it’s unbelievably destroying.”

Sam’s daughter Chloe added: “She will be coming home without a skull and wearing a helmet.

"It’s something we want to make people aware of because you don’t really see many people on a mobility scooter going around Tesco with a helmet on.

“A lot of people have asked me if mum had any symptoms before it happened, but there was no clue that she was about to have a stroke. Most people think you have a stroke and you can go back to work within two weeks, but no two strokes are the same.”

The online fundraising page has so far raised more than £2,000.

To help the family, visit www.gofundme.com/f/fund-a-spa-hot-tub