Stroke affects over 150,000 people in the UK each year, often resulting in paralysis and disability. The author suffered a massive stroke at age 35 but was left alone, terrified, and unable to walk, talk, or eat. Through intense therapy over 18 months, he regained most functions but a key part of his recovery came from meeting other young stroke survivors who gave him hope. Currently, there is no UK network to link new stroke victims with experienced survivors for support. The proposed network aims to match people based on attributes and connect them to improve recovery times and outcomes for stroke patients. It has support from medical experts and seeks technological and funding assistance to become a service provided to UK hospitals.

2. The need: overview
• 150,000 people suffer strokes each year in the UK
• A stroke occurs when life-giving blood is blocked
from the brain, effectively suffocating it
• Many stroke victims suffer paralysis and lose the
use of one half of their body
• Stroke is the UK’s biggest cause of disability
• More and more young people are suffering
strokes
• 50% of stroke survivors suffer clinical depression

3. The need: my story
• At 35 years old (March 1st 2009) I had a massive stroke
• At first, I couldn’t walk, talk or eat. I was left alone,
terrified and confused, unsure if I could rebuild my life
• Now, after 18 months of intense and painful therapy, I
can walk, talk and look after myself and almost
function normally
• A key step in my recovery was meeting other young
stroke survivors, who gave me hope and the belief that
I could rebuild my life
– BUT this did not happen for over a year because there is
no UK network to link stroke victims & stroke survivors

4. The answer: the network
• Matching up new stroke victims with the army of
stroke survivors who are ready, willing and able
to help
• The network will match people by age, gender,
ethnicity, sexual orientation etc – whatever
matters to the stroke survivor
• The network will create systemic change, placing
people who empathise, understand and care
deeply into the heart of NHS stroke care

5. Business model
• Phase 1: provide a service, measure and
quantify the impact of mentoring versus
normal care
– Eg patients recover 3 months earlier, saving £xxx
– US evidence suggests mentoring works
• Phase 2: offer the service to Hospital Trusts
– Many charities are funded for the services they
provide to NHS Trusts (eg Macmillan Cancer Care)

6. Stage of development
• Concept and
• Have considerable support from medical
community
– Advisory Board members recruited so far include
• Fiona Godlee, Editor of British Medical Journal,
• Prof Patrick Gompertz, one of the world’s leading stroke
consultants
• Not yet incorporated

7. What we need now
• People with skills to build the technological
backbone of the network
• Assistance in applying for initial seed funding
• Help to write a detailed business plan

8. About me
• Worked as the UK’s leading male dating
expert/coach, aka ‘The Love Doctor’
• Internationally published author
• Was the founding project manager of ‘Faculty
of 1000 Medicine’, a network linking the
world’s top medical scientists
• Available to work full-time on the project
subject to the constraints of the stroke

9. Contact details
• Sam van Rood
• 07951 886 434
• sam@samvanrood.com