Jake Milnes-Green is a Corporate Sales Director at Countrywide Home Surveys. After falling ill suddenly and requiring emergency care from teams at Salford Royal Hospital, he spearheaded a corporate partnership with NorthCare Charity. Here is his story...
"In 2022, I was attending the gym five times a week, running, and eating healthily - at 44 years old, I felt my absolute best.
"However, on the 16 August at 3pm, just after a business meeting, I felt a bit off and thought something was wrong. Then suddenly I lost the use of my entire left side of my body, which made me drop my phone and as I naturally went to pick it up, I couldn’t control my left arm - it was like jelly. Then I looked in the mirror and the left side of my face looked like it was melting!
"I went to shout to my husband for help, and a muffled strange noise came out of my mouth. I couldn’t speak properly and that was the moment that I realised that I was having a stroke. Thankfully my husband had heard me drop to the floor and my muffled shout. He managed to get me onto the bed, and whilst he called for an ambulance, and when I was on the way to the hospital, I suffered a provoked seizure.
"From that point to the 17 August, I don’t remember anything, until I woke up on the Stroke Unit at Salford Royal Hospital. Having the stroke will never leave my memory and seeing my face in the mirror is something that I still see when I close my eyes today. It was such a terrifying experience!
"When I eventually regained a good state of consciousness, I noticed that there was a poster right in front of me about supporting NorthCare Charity. At first, I was confused, as I had no idea that parts of the NHS were funded by charity.
"Around the same time, Countrywide Home Surveys were looking for a new charity to support as part of our social and wellbeing strategy. I had asked the team to think about a charity that we could work with as I have always found choosing a charity to support to be quite challenging, due to how many worthwhile charities there are that require support.
"I vaguely remember contacting Verity at work after my stroke to tell her that I’d found a charity for us to work with, and managed to joke about the lengths I would go to find one! I say vaguely, as the stroke hugely affected my memory and I still struggle at times to remember things.
"The staff at Salford Royal saved my life. They continued their support with the Rehabilitation Team once I returned home, and though the recovery is far harder than I anticipated, it brings me great joy to be able to support them in the work that they do - helping so many other people, who like myself, experience some form of life-changing trauma.
"Living close to Salford Royal means that I have watched the Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital building develop. At no point did I ever think that I would need lifesaving treatment the way I did, and so supporting NorthCare Charity is very close to my heart. It is genuinely amazing that the company that I work for and the staff there are all 100% behind me and this charity, with the time and effort that they put into fundraising."
Countrywide Home Surveyors have made a corporate donation from a percentage of their sales and have also undertaken various employee fundraising activities, including a five-a-side football tournament, bucket collection, and Halloween tombola. For more information about Countrywide, visit countrywidehomesurveys.co.uk. To find out more about corporate partnerships with NorthCare Charity, click here.