AN inspirational young woman who was left devastated when her much-loved grandfather died due to a sudden stroke is now taking on a charity challenge in memory of her lost loved one.
Lauren McCormick told how her family spent a week of worry camped out on the floor of Inverclyde Royal’s stroke unit after her grandfather Robert took ill in October 2022.
While the 68-year-old sadly did not survive, Lauren has been inspired to participate in Zipslide the Clyde to raise cash for Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland in his honour.
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She hopes the money can go towards helping those who are living with the effects of strokes and other serious illnesses the charity tackles.
(Image: Lauren McCormick)
She said: “It was a big blow losing my grandad. It really opened my mind to these issues.
“It was such a shock to our family because he was always healthy his whole life, with it happening so quickly it was really difficult.
“He was taken in on the Tuesday and died the following Tuesday.
“It’s been very hard for us as a family. Like I say, he was healthy all of his life and for that to just happen to him so suddenly was a massive shock.
“Our whole family all camped out at the hospital that whole week, it was really hard going through it all again.
“We had sleeping bags on the hospital floor and everything.
“He passed away at the Larkfield Unit, which is the stroke unit, and they were amazing with us.
“The support they showed us and the help we were given was incredible.
“They allowed us to stay out there and be with my grandad in his final week, we can’t thank them enough for that.”
The 22-year-old, along with her pal Rachel Taylor, will take on the 100-foot zipline challenge at the end of August.
The pair are also organising a charity night at The Vault in Greenock in collaboration with their friend Nicole Irvine to bring in donations on September 5.
Lauren says she and her friends have a number of family members who have been affected by illnesses such as strokes and COPD and were keen to support the charity.
(Image: George Munro)
She added: “My grandad’s wife, my nana, has also taken a stroke recently. She thankfully got the help she needs but it just shows how important this charity is and how important it is to make people aware of these things.”
“My nana’s recovering now with the support of the family, our family is absolutely huge so there was plenty of support for my nana, just like there was when my grandad passed away.”
Lauren says she is looking forward to taking part in the charity challenge next month and hopes she and her friends can raise plenty of cash for the worthy cause.
She said: “I’ll be a bit nervous about the zip slide, my biggest fear is drowning and it’s over the Clyde.
“I’m sure it’ll be very emotional. A lot of my family are coming up and I want to get a flag made to show I’m doing it for my grandad.
“We’ve had an amazing amount of kindness from people when we’ve been organising our charity night, we’ve got brilliant raffle prizes and we’ve had helped from a lot of local charities.”
Those who wish to donate to Lauren’s fundraiser can do so at https://tinyurl.com/57t7htmr.
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