A woman who suffered two strokes said she believed her high blood pressure was simply something she was “living with” and “never imagined it would kill me”.

Natasha Carayol, 40, from north London, suffered a stroke in May 2022 after feeling like a “nuclear bomb had gone off” in her head, with doctors confirming that her high blood pressure was the cause of the aneurysm that caused the stroke.

She underwent emergency brain surgery, but was left with a severely swollen face, slow speech and extreme weakness, which meant she had to relearn how to walk.

A stroke caused her to put her life into perspective and decided to work as a freelance financial advisor, and since music helped her recover, she decided to become a DJ.

In 2024, she found out she was pregnant and was “terrified” she was going to have another stroke.

In June 2025, five weeks after giving birth, her “worst nightmare” came true. She suffered a second stroke, again due to high blood pressure.

Natasha, a mother of two, Jazire, 17, and Malaya, seven months, told PA Real Life:

“I now live in fear and am constantly worried that it will happen again.

“Any headache, any strange feeling, makes your heart race.

“A stroke doesn’t just change your body, it changes your mind.”

Until 2022, Natasha was a regional team manager and financial advisor for an insurance broker, juggling life as a single mother alongside a side job as a radio DJ.

She had no major health concerns other than being diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2010.

In May 2022, she began experiencing “severe headaches” and “extreme fatigue” for about a week.

She tried to ignore the pain, but one day she decided to go to the office instead of working from home as usual.

After attending a morning Zoom meeting, she took a sip of coffee and suddenly felt “like a nuclear bomb went off” in her head.

Unable to move, she collapsed to the floor.

There was no one on her side of the office, so when she fell, she grabbed the desk to make a noise and alert her colleagues on the floor.

“I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. I was trapped in my body,” Natasha added.

Colleagues rushed to the scene and called an ambulance, and she was rushed to Ealing Hospital in a flash of blue light, where she slowly began to regain movement and speech.

Tests revealed she had extremely high blood pressure, and doctors initially thought she “just needed to rest,” she said.

She was told to go home because she needed a bed, but Natasha remembered that she had paid for private health insurance and asked for further tests.

Brain scans revealed that a brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm caused the stroke.

She also said that doctors confirmed that the aneurysm was caused by her high blood pressure.

“Based on my diagnosis, if I had gone home that night, I don’t think I would have woken up the next day. My brain would have been flooded with blood,” she said.

She was taken to Charing Cross Hospital later the same day.

The next morning, she underwent emergency brain surgery to stop the bleeding and prevent future aneurysms.

Natasha explained: “After the surgery, my face was swollen and I looked like the Elephant Man. I was so weak that I spent a lot of time in bed and had to learn how to walk again.”

“I had speech therapy because I was a slow speaker and had to think about what I was going to say before I spoke.”

After being discharged from the hospital, Natasha remained at her grandmother’s house, who took care of her.

Natasha found recovery difficult because she was no longer as independent as she used to be.

She needed to “rebuild her confidence” and turned to music. She said DJing helped her find herself again.

She began DJing for neighbors in her garden for hours at a time, and by October she had mostly recovered and returned to work, but still felt “too weak.”

Taking this as a sign, she decided to focus on DJing instead, going on holiday to DJ in Morocco and setting goals to perform all over the world.

Through connections she made during her travels, she went on to perform in Greece, Spain, and Türkiye.

She had found her “purpose” and felt that her life was “getting better and returning to normal.”

In October 2024, Natasha was surprised to find out she was pregnant.

Pregnancy can increase the risk of having a stroke, so throughout her pregnancy she was “terrified that I was going to have another stroke.”

However, she was relieved after seeing a specialist who was able to lower her blood pressure.

After giving birth in June 2025, she suffered heavy bleeding and was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Five weeks later, while at home, she suddenly felt the urge to give the baby to her partner and had a headache.

Shortly after, she collapsed and her mother called an ambulance. She suffered another brain hemorrhage and stroke.

Doctors again confirmed that high blood pressure was the cause.

She spent three weeks recovering in the hospital, breastfeeding her newborn daughter in a hospital bed.

“I looked at her and thought I had to get better. I needed to go home. I needed to be her mother,” she said.

Her recovery was “even more difficult this time,” as she was initially unable to move her left side and had slurred speech.

Since then, her language skills have improved with the help of a speech therapist, and an occupational therapist has helped her regain movement.

But she still feels the psychological effects of having a stroke, and is “paranoid” and “constantly worried” about having another stroke.

Natasha is now working with the Stroke Association to raise awareness and help others understand their risk in the lead up to Stroke Prevention Day on January 29th.

“If my story inspires one person to check their blood pressure, then it’s all worth it,” Natasha explained.

“High blood pressure is often silent, but its consequences can be devastating.

“Strokes don’t just happen to older people. I was in my 30s. I was busy, working, being a mother, living my life.

“Your blood pressure has nothing to do with how strong you are or how successful you are.”

The Stroke Society is the UK’s leading charity providing lifelong support to all stroke survivors and their families.

They provide tailored support to tens of thousands of stroke survivors every year, fund vital scientific research and campaign to ensure the best care for all stroke patients.

See below for more information. www.stroke.org.uk.