Newcastle dad communicates by blinking after two strokes left him paralysed and trapped in his own body

A Newcastle dad has been left paralysed and trapped inside his own body after suffering two strokes.

Steven Brown began to experience intense pain and dizziness before suffering a stroke in June this year. The 39-year-old recovered and was placed on bed rest, before he experienced a second stroke.

The stroke has now left Steven entirely paralysed with what is commonly called locked-in syndrome. He is still able to see and hear but he now communicates entirely through blinking – two blinks for yes and one for no.

• Read more: 'Gone but never forgotten': Heartfelt tributes left at scene of fatal County Durham motorcycle crash
• Keep up to date with all the latest local news from Newcastle with our free newsletter

Two weeks after suffering one of his strokes, Steven's partner, Alyson Brown, 36, married him, and said she wants to be by his side “in sickness and in health” and wants others to be aware of the warning signs. Primary school teacher Alyson told PA Real Life she met Steven through Tinder two years ago and got engaged in August 2023.

When Steven began experiencing his second stroke, he shouted out: “Alyson ring 999, this is it”. Steven then collapsed, with Alyson saying it was “one of the scariest things I’d ever seen".

Steven’s family and friends have been left devastated, and according to his best friend, Kris Leighton, 43, Steven initially indicated that he wanted his ventilator turned off as the medical staff “pretty much said that he’s got no chance of any quality of life at all". But after having a “perfect” wedding ceremony in the intensive care unit on June 27 in which Alyson wore a white wedding dress, the staff lined the corridors and clapped, and Steven’s 16-year-old son placed the ring on Alyson’s finger, Steven has changed his mind and wants to continue living.

Kris added: “Once he got married the following day and saw all the support and love he’s gotten, it made him change his mind and want to fight on." Football-obsessed Steven, who played semi-professionally for Dunston UTS Football Club, and has four children – Benny, five-months-old, Megan, seven, Annee, 10, and Rocco, 16, first experienced intense pain, dizziness and blurred vision one morning in April, before a pharmacist told him he had high blood pressure.

Another concerning incident occurred when Alyson received a text from Steven asking her to pick him up from work as he had experienced an extremely bad dizzy spell and Alyson took him to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Gateshead, where she noticed his slanted eye and lips. “There was just something that was not sitting right,” Alyson said.

Steven had a scan and the couple were informed that he had experienced a stroke, so he stayed overnight at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. Alyson said: “It was a cerebellar stroke, which usually happens from damage in the back of the neck but Steven hadn’t had an accident.”

On June 13, Alyson and Steven, who worked for HM Revenue and Customs, were going to go to their local coffee shop when Steven started to feel unwell and wanted to lie down in bed – but Alyson asked him to stay downstairs with her. She said: “I am so glad I did because he sat bolt upright and just shouted my name – ‘Alyson, ring 999, this is it’ – and then he had fits and seizures on that sofa in front of me.

“I rang 999 and as I was on the phone to them, his breathing went really deep so I had to shout next door to the neighbour to help me put Steven on his side because his body had stiffened with the seizure.” The ambulance “only took eight minutes to get there but it felt like a lifetime because I was watching him in pain”, Alyson said, and Steven had an operation the following morning, during which multiple clots were found and one was removed.

After the operation, friends and family were feeling positive and expected him to recover and begin moving, but as time went on, Steven did not move, and his family and wife were told he had extremely rare locked-in syndrome. “I was going back over for a visit and the doctor sat me down and said the symptoms and I asked ‘is it locked-in syndrome’ and she looked at me and said ‘yes’,” Alyson said. She said she was in “disbelief” initially.

“(I had) the realisation that I’m never going to get him home to our home, and also not wanting to go to our home because it’s where I saw him take so poorly and I thought I lost him that day,” Alyson said. Family and friends have been heartened that Steven can still communicate with them, using a chart Alyson made with different letters for him to spell out words.

“The first letters I got from him from this chart that I made was L-O-V. He could only give us three, and I said ‘I love you too’ and ‘if you want to say I love you, give us four blinks’, so every time I’m in in the morning, I get four blinks and every time I’m leaving, I get four blinks.”

Alyson said she was determined to marry the man she loved as she told him: “Marriage is in sickness and in health, I am here by your side, and whatever you need, that’s what we’ll do. Basically they said ‘do you still want to marry Alyson’ and he gave two blinks and they said that was a definite yes, so they were like, ‘look, Alyson, if we can sort it, would you still marry Steven?’” she said.

“I just burst into tears – of course I would.” She said: “(The hospital staff) got flowers for us and they got a wedding cake for us and they lined up and down the corridors, all the nurses and doctors, and clapped as me and my dad walked through. The hospital staff decorated the room and used pillowcases on the chairs and stuff like that, they had been really creative, and all of his friends and family all wore Newcastle tops.

“Steven wore his Newcastle top and his sliders because he effectively lives in his sliders, and it was just totally Steven. His son Rocco was his best man and obviously Steven wasn’t able to put the ring on my finger so his son did it for him which was super emotional.

“We were able to forget, just for one day, and it just really expressed the meaning of marriage. I couldn’t see anyone else in the room. Everyone said he lit up and his eyes were open when I came in the room and mine did too, and for that moment we had it was really special, and I wouldn’t normally say that about something, but it was actually quite magical.”

Before the wedding, Steven’s friends held a stag do for him in his hospital room in which they watched England play in the Euros and had a few drinks, Kris said. Alyson said their initial wedding venue was still booked.

She said: “It’s still there in the hope that we still get to do that as well." Steven is receiving physical therapy and around-the-clock care and his wife, friends and family hope he will make progress and be moved from the intensive care unit to the stroke ward.

“At the moment, it’s taking one day at a time,” Alyson said. His family and friends continue to rally around him, describing him as “funny,” “cheeky” and a family man.

Describing his caring nature, his family affectionately recalled animal-loving Steven jumping into Bolam Lake in Northumberland to rescue his dog Norman, who had swum in after a ball, exactly one month before his major stroke. Alyson’s message to anyone experiencing strange symptoms, and to their loved ones, is to “speak up” if they think there is a problem, and to “get checked if you don’t feel right”.

Steven’s friends and family have started a GoFundMe to raise money for his healthcare and will be organising charity football matches with his old club and a charity golf day, with Kris saying Steven has had an “unbelievable” amount of support.

Steven’s fundraiser can be found here