‘I had a stroke aged 17 and was left unable to speak – what precipitated it shocked me’

A young woman suffered a stroke at the age of 17, triggered by her contraceptive pill.

Lauren Jean was holidaying in Spain when she woke up in the middle of the night to find her entire right side numb. Attempting to get out of bed, she fell, alerting her parents with the noise who promptly called for an ambulance.

Unable to speak or move, Lauren was air lifted to Hospital Universitario Torrecardenas, Almeria, where she underwent emergency surgery. The operation revealed that she had developed a blood clot which had travelled to her brain, causing the stroke.

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Doctors informed her that the clot was a result of her combined contraceptive pill. Further heart scans disclosed that the teenager had been born with a hole in her heart – a passage through which the clot had travelled to her brain.

The stroke left Lauren unable to walk or talk, and she spent several months undergoing physiotherapy to regain these functions. She also underwent surgery to repair the hole in her heart – and two years later, she is unrecognisable as she prepares for the 2025 London Marathon.

Now 20, Lauren, a singer-songwriter from Clitheroe, Lancashire, recalled: “On the day I had my stroke, my parents were told the chances of me surviving were slim to none. I remember I couldn’t move or speak and I was being wheeled into emergency surgery – I had no idea what was going on.”

“When I found out it was because I developed a blood clot and had a heart defect, I thought my life would never be the same again. After my surgeries, I had to learn how to walk again – it was tough, but they couldn’t stop me from trying. I didn’t want to sit down until I could walk again – then I applied for the London Marathon.

“Now I’m training and stronger than I was before – you’d never know I had a stroke two years ago.”

Lauren had been on the combined contraceptive pill since she was 13 to manage her heavy periods. She knew about the slight risks of blood clots linked with the pill, but never thought it would affect her.

However, everything changed on August 12, 2022, while on holiday with her family in Mojacar, Spain, when she woke up in the middle of the night unable to feel her right side. Lauren recalled: “I kept blacking out and I couldn’t ask any questions – I feared for my life.”

“I was wheeled into a room full of people for surgery – I couldn’t ask what surgery I was having though. It could have been brain surgery, heart surgery or to chop my leg off for all I knew.”

She underwent several hours of brain surgery where doctors discovered a blood clot that had caused her stroke. Lauren said: “When I was told I’d had a stroke I couldn’t believe it – I said ‘what, you mean sunstroke? ‘.”

After spending days in the intensive care ward, unable to walk, talk, or even use the toilet by herself, she was taken for a heart scan. Doctors found a hole in her heart – a patent foramen ovale (PFO) – and Lauren pleaded to fly back to the UK before undergoing further treatment.

Upon her return to the UK, doctors revealed that her contraceptive pill had been the cause of her blood clot. She shared: “They told me the clot would have started in my leg, and normally it would have disintegrated on its own. But because I have this hole in my heart, it had slipped through and gone into my brain, causing my stroke.”

She embarked on a course of physiotherapy at Royal Blackburn Hospital to regain her mobility, and after six weeks, she was able to walk again. In July 2023, she underwent heart surgery where a device was implanted to close the hole in her heart.

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