Relax, whatever you’re doing, relax. It might seem a strange way to begin my column but I speak from experience when I say that I’ve always been the kind of person that was always in a rush, always tense.

I was anxious and always wanted to do the next thing sooner, faster quicker, better. I was a born worrier who bit my fingernails and strove to do everything faster.

But 16 years ago in August 1999, I had a warning. I suffered a TIA or transient ischaemic attack, which Is basically a very minor stroke that did very little apart from affecting my speaking and chewing food.

A few days later I was fine, but a scan showed that I had had a minor stroke.

I didn’t take any notice of the warning, and I soldiered on like the belligerent bulldozer that I always was.

And then, nine years later, after having two children and a lot of hard work in my professional life and fun along the way, I had a major brain haemorrhage that left me partially paralysed and visually impaired.

Now I can see the benefit of relaxing and taking life and a more gentle pace.

This is partly because I simply cannot run around and do the things I used to do in such a hurry.

I was forever stuck in a traffic jam and stressed because I was late to be somewhere, or battling against slugs, weeds and the weather on my allotment in the attempt to get some useful produce out of the ground.

I’m not allowed to drive any more and I don’t miss it at all.

I have got better at using the buses and I suppose I miss being able to get absolutely where I want when I want.

I was always a rush and being caught by speed cameras, so I was probably a danger to myself and other people anyway.

Richie, my guide dog and me have just moved into new rented accommodation where there is a nice garden.

I have thrown some runner bean seeds into the ground and if I get something back that’s wonderful. But if I don’t, the slugs will be very happy and fat.

So I beg you, please slow down and take everything a little more slowly.

Our roads are too full of people doing wheelspins and screeching around the place. It’s ridiculous and totally unnecessary.

If people continue to rush around like this they will end up like me.

Around 110,000 people suffer a stroke each year in the UK, a third of whom will die. Another third will have a lifetime of disability and rehabilitation.

Please, if there’s just one small part of you that thinks that maybe you do rush too much and take life a bit too seriously then please, please, slow down and live a healthy happy life.