Your stories
6th February 2025
Whether it’s about living with your condition or how you have helped fundraise for Shine, we love hearing from you. Shine Stories is a great way to share your experiences with our communities and inspire others to support Shine by fundraising, volunteering, campaigning for us, and raising awareness of the conditions and the support we can provide.
If you would like to share your own story, please contact us by email at marketing@shinecharity.org.uk.
Heather Hughes (from Llanfairpwlgwyngylll - the village with the longest name) life changed forever when she was 51 years old.
In April 2019, she was walking out of Venue Cymru Theatre, after watching Blood Brothers with her mum and two daughters, when she felt an enormous pain in the back of her head. She thought she had a brain haemorrhage. She knew then that something serious had happened, and it had, she had suffered a Subarachnoid Haemorrhage and ended up being transferred from Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor to the Walton Centre in Liverpool.
She fell unconscious in Walton and had to have surgery on her brain - this left her with hydrocephalus and needing a VP shunt. She had never heard of hydrocephalus and was not sure how this would affect her life. On the 7th May, her shunt was fitted, and after five weeks, she was allowed home.
Then, in June 2019, she suffered four mini strokes on her left-hand side and ended up in Ysbyty Gwynedd again and back to Walton. She had an MRI, and they found a clot in her brain.
By August of that year, she hit rock bottom and ended up having emergency support from the mental health team and counselling to help her come to terms with all that had happened to her.
It was around about this time she was told about Shine. She contacted Shine and was advised about the Facebook Group for over 40’s, where she became a member.
“I can never thank this Shine Facebook Group enough as they were and have been a massive help to me - by helping me to understand what living with hydrocephalus means. The support I have been given has been amazing, and I soon realised that life was going to be different”.
Heather decided that she wanted to do something to show her appreciation to the group and Shine and to organise a fundraising event.
In June 2020, she had planned her fundraising event. However, COVID-19 had other ideas, so this event was put on hold. It finally happened in October 2022, slightly different from what was originally planned, and she raised £2,500!
Heather suffered another mini stroke on the right-hand side in March 2021 and this left her with a slight droop on her face. One of her work colleagues noticed that she was starting to become low in her moods and introduced her to cold water swimming.
Fast forward to now, and she swims in the sea about three or four times a week. “I am totally hooked, and it is addictive. It has given me a new lease on life, and I can say hand on heart that cold water swimming has saved me”.
In Spring 2024, she set herself another challenge to raise more funds for Shine. She decided to swim the length of Llyn Padarn, 3.2km.
“I am no athlete, and believe me swimming 3.2km in cold water was a big challenge”.
She started training whilst on holiday in Corfu, and by the end of the fortnight, she swam for two hours solid and completed 300 lengths of the pool.
She continued her training with a trial run a few weeks before her challenge.
On the 7th September 2024, she set off from Penllyn Bridge in Brynrefail and headed off to the end of the lake in Llanberis. The current was against her, but she finally made it after 2hrs and 7mins.
“It was extremely emotional as my friends and family cheered me as I reached the end. When I stood up, my legs were like jelly and just gave under me, but what a feeling of achievement knowing that I had completed my challenge and raised £2148 for Shine”.