Jon – Humans of Avon and Somerset
“That’s when they told me, you’ve had a stroke and part of your brain has died.”
In May 2022, my partner Lorin was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. From the very beginning, St. Margaret’s Hospice stepped in to support us. This remarkable charity offers compassionate care to individuals and families facing life-limiting illnesses. Their first interactions with our family were meetings with our then ten-year-old daughter, who likely as a result of this early support has since absolutely thrived at secondary school. Soon, their support extended to our entire family, becoming an unwavering source of strength through an incredibly difficult time.
Our family were incredibly grateful for the hospice’s kindness and compassion, and I began to wonder how I could raise money to give something back. I knew I wanted to do something meaningful, but I wanted to do something different to a marathon or triathlon. Although I’ve played a lot of sport, including several to a national level… years of injuries have made long-distance running undesirable for me.
In September 2023, I received an email about Britain’s Strongest Police Officer competition. At that time, I was no stranger to the gym, having been introduced to it whilst at college, but had never lifted a log, sandbag, deadlifted properly or taken part in anything close to a strongman-style training. Sports had always been a big part of my life, but strength competitions were completely new to me. I’d only ever trained by myself, with no ‘goal,’ and never competitively.
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the perfect challenge. It was slightly unique. It played on something I was already relatively competent-if raw-at. It was something I could train for around family life and work commitments. It reflects a lot of the characteristics Lorin has shown in dealing with her diagnosis. In December 2023, I contacted a coach, Ollie Clarke, an international standard weight class strength athlete, and together we built a training plan focused on preparing me for strongman competitions, all with the goal of raising funds for St Margaret’s Hospice.
Strongman competitions require a solid base level of strength. From there I focused on training each part of my body to handle the variety of tasks these events demand-grip, for example, and a surprising amount of technique work, alongside some exercises purely designed to get me used to tolerating pain! In February 2024 I entered my first competition, Limitless Classic in King’s Lynn, organised by my coach and Frank Parks, another international standard strongman athlete. Only a month later, I entered Britain’s Strongest Police Officer, with the competition scheduled for summer 2024.
In April, I launched the fundraiser, Sergeant to Strongman, and the amount of support it received exceeded all my expectations. I initially set a goal of £500, and it reached that target within a few hours. Many colleagues, people I’ve worked with from all over A&S, and families contributed. It was surprising to discover how many at work took an interest, and the fundraiser continued to grow from there. I set up an Instagram page and started putting a few training posts on there (I’m still no film director, but you can see over time an evolution in editing ability!)
After many weeks of training, I felt confident in how much progress I’d made, and a week before the competition I set several personal bests- pushing 125kg on the log, and overhead pressing 150kg for two reps. The following week, I competed in the beginner category of the Limitless Classic, and finished in second place, winning three events. My family came to watch, including my dad, who had seen ‘World’s Strongest Man’ on TV before but had no other exposure to this sport….like so many of us. Lorin, and my daughter also came along, and they all really enjoyed the event. It was a genuine amateur competition, but really showcased the camaraderie of the sport-barely anybody knew each other, and we were all in competition with each other, but the atmosphere was very social and supportive.
Before that year, I had no serious medical issues, aside from injuries sustained from team sports like rugby. Towards the end of June, I was diagnosed with arthritis in my knee, which wasn’t a complete surprise after having had multiple operations on my knee many years ago. Then, 10 days before my next competition, something completely unexpected happened.
One Saturday night at the gym, I was about halfway through my workout. I wasn’t gasping for air or pushing near my maximum, so it came as a shock when leaning back against a bench to push the weights away from me…..about half of my vision suddenly went. There was no pain, weakness or loss of any other sensation. I finished the whole of my set and stood back up, but my left-side vision remained completely gone, though I otherwise felt fine. At the time, I just dismissed it as tiredness, or too much coffee….but my vision didn’t return to normal; I walked on the treadmill for half an hour, but still nothing, so I decided to call it a day.
By the time I got home, walked the dog and went to bed around 10pm, my vision still hadn’t returned. I was home alone, so I went to sleep hoping a good rest would solve the issue. When I woke the next morning, my vision hadn’t come back-at which point I started to think something wasn’t right. I told Lorin what happened and that I still couldn’t see properly. She immediately took me to the hospital, where they ran numerous tests and x-rays. That’s when they told me, you’ve had a stroke and part of your brain has died.
I was admitted to a ward at this point, and told I wasn’t allowed to leave, which was a bit frustrating as that evening England were due to play in the final of the European Championships, and I’d promised I would it with my daughter. Some of the nurses on the ward set up a room and a few of the inpatients watched England narrowly miss out on winning. The next day before being discharged, I underwent cognitive testing – memory, coordination and processing – and demonstrating I could still go up and down stairs – which all came back normal. Doctors suspected a blood clot had travelled to my brain and blocked the oxygen supply to a particular part, for long enough for it to, in short, die. In a way, I have been lucky, as the only thing that seems to have been affected is my vision, and only on one side. I remember mentioning I was going to go back to work the following day….and being told that wasn’t really a good idea!
From that point on, it became a waiting game – hoping my vision would return and waiting to be booked in for more scans and tests over the next few months. My training had to stop, and I withdrew from the Britain’s Strongest Police officer competition. I underwent echo tests and x-rays, but the doctors never identified a cause – it was considered a freak incident. I’ve since been told that up to 60% of ischemic strokes in younger adults are cryptogenic-meaning the cause remains unknown after thorough investigation. Otherwise, I was perfectly healthy. All the usual factors that cause strokes, like cholesterol and blood pressure, were completely normal-good, even.
One thing I had noticed while training for the first competition was that how much it had helped me blow off steam. With Lorin’s diagnosis and my work commitments, training gave me a healthy outlet to release stress-to the extent that I had truly not really felt overwhelmed at any point. I wanted to carry on training and continue raising money for the hospice, but I didn’t know what I could safely do.
I worked with my coach to revise the plan. We stripped all the weights back, but carried on with training to keep me moving, fit and healthy. I committed to that and gradually increased the weight training at a safe pace. I still haven’t returned to 100% because ever since the stroke, there’s always been a small voice my head asking: “what if it happens again?”
In September 2024, I had a heart scan, which was part of the investigation into the cause of the stroke-it didn’t identify this, but did show that I was born with part of one my heart valves missing. It shouldn’t cause any issues-my heart works perfectly-but it’s something that needs monitoring, as effectively other parts of my heart are working harder, and invariably will wear out more quickly as a result. At that point, I was asking myself: “will I be okay?”
The fundraiser stayed live, even while I took a break from training. In October 2024, my sister ran the Bristol to Bath marathon to raise money for the cause. As we entered the new year and I received what I perceived as the all-clear with my heart, I felt ready to enter the competition I had set my sights on from the very beginning, and missed out on last year. I signed up alongside fellow Avon and Somerset officer Mark ‘Bob’ Santrian, and we both entered the novice category of Britain’s Strongest Police Officer 2025, set to take place in Durham.
The competition took place in Hartlepool in June, and was incredibly well turned-out, with over 50 competitors from all over England, Scotland and Wales. The organiser, from Durham Police, had done a fantastic job in organising everything, and their PCC and one of the ACCs were spectating. The owners and staff of the gym where we competed had experience of judging professional-level competitions, and the whole event was extremely well run, with an impressive standard of competition. Being able to finally compete in the event I had originally aimed for – to raise money for the hospice supporting my family, meant so much to me. I finished 2nd place, with two event wins and a tie-break victory. Bob finished 4th-an amazing achievement for his first ever competition-with and absolutely incredible performance in the deadlift event, and only one point separating 2nd and 4th place! I documented the day, event by event, including a ‘blooper reel’ on Instagram and the GoFundMe page (sorry Bob), and the fundraising total passed £9,500.
Looking ahead, competing in next year’s police competition is on the cards, but I’ve also been talking to people about hosting the event in Avon and Somerset. Whether or not I can compete, helping to host it locally would help me stay involved. The only medical concern is moving up a category again next time, where the weights would be a bit more challenging, especially with my current training ceiling. It would be great to see the total amount raised for the hospice reach £10,000 too.
My family will always be my main priority and that’s where my focus remains. We also have a lot of support- from each other and family, as well as a network of people and organisations like the hospice. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed to that support, in any shape or form…and that includes the fundraiser, as indirectly that has helped the hospice to help my family, and so many others.
Fundraiser by Jon Gallagher : Sergeant to Strongman for St. Margaret’s