Mick Speed had just put a ready meal in the oven, and was looking forward to washing it down with a pint, when he noticed a feeling of ‘pins and needles’ down his left side.

Suddenly, he collapsed on the floor, then half an hour later he was eating his dinner as if nothing had happened.

What Mick didn’t know was that he had suffered a stroke – but he didn’t find out until four days later.

“I collapsed at home on a Thursday evening. I was fine the next day, and all weekend, then I was driving to work on Monday morning and found I couldn’t change gears properly,” says Mick. “I didn’t feel right so I went to the doctor and he said, ‘you’ve had a stroke’. He told me I needed to go to hospital so I said I’d drive there – but he took my car keys off me. I ended up in hospital for three months.”

Mick was 53 when he had his stroke, in 2003. He was a smoker, he liked a drink, ate regular ready meals, heavy in fat and salt, and was suffering work-related stress – all factors linked to strokes.

“I’d always associated strokes with old age,” says Mick. “I didn’t think it would happen to me.”

After leaving hospital, Mick joined a Government scheme looking into stroke research, and through that he heard about Shipley Stroke Group. Now he is co-chairman of the group, which provides activities, therapies and counselling for people who have had strokes, and their carers.

The group meets weekly and activities include chair exercises, arts and crafts, games such as dominoes, chess, darts and quizzes, beauty therapies, computer skills and karaoke. Activities are designed to improve things like hand-eye co-ordination and to encourage people to use areas of their body affected by stroke. There are trips, social activities such as bowling and walks around Yeadon Tarn, and members produce a newsletter.

Affiliated to the Stroke Association, the club has about 40 members, ranging in age from 40 to 80. Although it is called Shipley Stroke Club – because it initially started in Shipley – it is open to people from wider areas.

“Coming here has kept me sane,” says Mick, who is a volunteer with the Stroke Association and represents the club on Bradford’s Physical Disability and Sensory Needs Partnership.

Mick’s stroke affected movement in his left side. “I have some movement, but not fine manipulative movement. I can walk on level ground, but on a lumpy pavement I use a walking stick. I can still drive, with a steering wheel adaptation. It’s taken four years of hard work to get any movement back.

“My stroke affected my mobility, but strokes can cause loss of sight and speech. People become very emotional or aggressive. A stroke can cause a total personality change.”

A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, damaging brain cells. While some people make a recovery within weeks, many survivors have long-term problems.

Strokes affect people differently, depending on the part of the brain affected, and can cause emotional and physical conditions such as depression, anxiety, memory loss, cognitive problems, incontinence, and problems with communication, balance, speech and sight.

According to the Stroke Association, there are about 152,000 strokes in the UK every year. People of any age can have a stroke, including children and babies.

Maxine Gabittas had a stroke aged 38, leaving her paralysed down her right side. Now 57, she has taken up art, thanks to art therapy sessions at Shipley Stroke Club, and has taught herself to paint with her left hand. “I’d never done art before but I found painting therapeutic,” says Maxine, who has had artwork exhibited. “There’s great camaraderie here, we have a giggle.”

The stroke club was set up in 1996 by stroke survivor Dr John Bavington, his wife Mary, and Keith and Liz Riddiough. Keith was just 42 when he had a stroke in 1992, causing a loss of speech, and Liz was 44 when she gave up her job to look after him.

It started as a coffee group then, with funding from Disability Services, expanded. It is now based at Haworth Road Methodist Church, which has had wheelchair access installed.

The church hall is buzzing with activity. People sit at tables playing dominoes, painting and tucking into lunch.

The club needs between £25,000 and £30,000 a year to fund things like rent, food, insurance and staff. The main funding comes from Bradford District Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which was due to run out this month but has now been extended for three months.

Helen Galtress, co-ordinator and co-chairman of the club, says unless more long-term funding is found it will close. “That would leave nowhere to go for our members, and for future stroke survivors,” she says. “The club provides a vital service for people who have suffered strokes, and their carers. Everybody who comes here has blossomed.”

Helen Hirst, chief officer for NHS Bradford CCG said: “We recognise the important role played by voluntary and community sector organisations in delivering health, wellbeing and social care support services, and we continue to invest significantly in many of these services across the district.

“We are currently in the process of reviewing all our commissioning intentions for the next two years as part of our strategy and planning process. This includes support services like Shipley Stroke Group.

“By the end of May we will be able to set out our plans for commissioning support services and other community projects, so we have decided to extend the group’s funding by three months while we do this.”

While the stroke club meets on Thursday mornings, carers attend a support group in the afternoons. “It gives them respite, and they support each other,” says Doreen Diamond, a counsellor at the group.

The importance of respite is something Doreen knows all too well. She had been running the carers’ group for two years when her own husband suffered a stroke.

“He got out of bed one morning and collapsed,” says Doreen. “He has no short-term memory and he gets irritable. I have to tell him things like when to wash and have a shave. It affects your whole life. Things we took for granted we can’t do anymore, like going for long walks.”

One member says she’d be lost without the club. “My husband had a stroke, aged 67, in 2007,” she says. “It was totally out of the blue, a huge shock. He became very short-tempered and has no empathy, so he doesn’t see how hard it is for me. I’m a nurse and I can cope with the physical side of care, but the mental side is much worse. He shouts at the grandchildren and gets angry with me – he’s not my husband anymore.

“This carers’ group is vital; we need time to ourselves. Talking to someone else who’s going through it really helps, and we have fun too. You go in nearly in tears and you come out laughing. My husband benefits from the club activities too. I don’t know where we’d be without it.”

For more about Shipley Stroke Club, call Helen Galtress on 07970 680258 or Michael Speed on (01274) 772796. For more about strokes, visit stroke.org.uk.