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How life can change in an instant was brought home to Gary Bellot with all the force of a sledgehammer six years ago.
The Stroke Association shared his story with Express...
"Gary had just got Halloween out of the way with his wife Lyn and two infant daughters Molly and Lily and was gearing up for Bonfire Night. It was then that everything changed, changed utterly, as the poet William Butler Yeats once wrote.
He had arrived in London for a number of business meetings when wham, his world came crashing down around him. Gary suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage, or to put it in layman’s terms, a stroke.
He came close to death. In fact, within touching distance of it. His wife was advised to prepare for the worst as he may not survive the next seven days.
Pictured: Gary, Lyn and their two daughters.
Let’s go back to the the beginning...
He was lucky enough to be born and raised in Jersey and attended Grouville and Le Rocquier School, then Highlands College. Having studied diligently for a number of years, mainly at night school, he obtained several business qualifications. Finance has been his working adult life, that and a devotion bordering on daft passion for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club where was once a scout for the club registered with the premier league..
Gary worked his way up the corporate ladder at Kleinwort Benson and Jersey’s branch of the Royal Bank of Canada and by the start of the Millennium was confident enough to start his own financial services company which after some successful years developing this both in Jersey, Switzerland and Cyprus he subsequently sold following an MBO. A number of years later he joined another Trust company, Vivat Trust which was sold in 2016.
Work had always been a rewarding and fulfilling part of his life. It was then Gary moved into the family office arena advising a high net worth family which he had worked with, and continues to, for thirty years.
His daughters were growing up – he also had three sons from a previous marriage, who were all creating their own worlds – when the day that changed everything came along.
He had been in London for routine business meetings and bumped into a friend of his in the hotel lobby before retiring to bed after a couple of glasses of wine.
He slept well and woke up on the morning of November 5th 2014.
Pictured: After four weeks in Charing Cross Hospital in London, Gary continued his recuperation at the Jersey General and Overdale Hospitals.
It was then he realised something was horribly wrong. He knew straight away that the headache he was suffering from was not a normal one, soon to be relieved by a couple of paracetamol. He called a friend who rang the hotel lobby and within a few minutes he was whisked away to Charing Cross Hospital in London.
This call effectively saved his life, his wife Lyn and some of his family flew to London to be with him although his two daughters were too young and stayed with their Grandparents.
A quick CT scan and a cerebral angiogram the next day revealed he had suffered a massive stroke.
This period of his life ihe finds difficult to comment on as he was was in a coma for four days following a nine-hour operation which successfully released the blood pressure in his brain and the aneurysm was then coiled – he had survived. At least initially. By all accounts, many individuals don’t.
After four weeks he was flown back to Jersey by air ambulance and continued his recuperation at the Jersey General and Overdale Hospitals.
The staff, doctors and nurses at both hospitals were truly inspiring and he has them to thank for saving his life and allowing him to continue as a father to his sons and daughters and husband to Lyn.
Pictured: Gary met Tracy O'Regan, Regional Coordinator for the Stroke Association in Jersey, while in hospital.
It was in the General Hospital that he was introduced to Tracy O’Regan. On first meeting her he didn’t know who she was or why she was seeing him, it was only then that the full magnitude of what he had been through started to sink in. Up until that point he hadn’t really understood what he had been through. He says “my Brain had been bulldozed by the medical equivalent of a ten-tonne truck and I wasn’t able to focus on anything with clarity”
He was shocked when the doctors told me him he had suffered a stroke. But hey, he was alive!
Tracy, regional coordinator for the Stroke Association in Jersey, remains a hugely valued friend to this day. Those initial weeks spent sitting in bed contemplating the enormity of what had happened, were made substantially easier by Tracy’s unceasing help and support. She organised for him to speak to other ‘survivors’ and in a ‘stroke’ – please excuse the terrible pun – So that he didn’t feel he was alone.
Until his stroke Gary was fit and healthy, he had never spent a night in hospital but because of the Stroke he had five tough years with major surgery on five occasions the last of which was a year ago at London Bridge hospital.
The good news is that Gary has now made something approaching a full recovery and can only now thank Tracy and her team, plus his own family and close friends and work colleagues for all that they have done for him and many others who have been through a similar experience. Gary says that Tracy, is an inspiration to us all.
Pictured: Gary has now made something approaching a full recovery.
Tracy approached Gary several years ago and asked him if he would join the local committee of the Stroke Association. Having considered the matter and consulted his family he agreed to the role.
In 2019 the chairman Ian Black ended his term in office and a replacement was needed, the committee at the time voted for Gary to take over the role from Ian who had been an inspirational chairman during his tenure.
Gary had made several promises since his illness, the one he made to Tracy’s charity to do as much as he can to help raise money and awareness, will be kept. He has assured her of that.
He says “if this episode has taught me anything it is that life is so short. Grab it while you can as you, me, everyone…..none of us knows how long we have been given”
Finally, Gary had come to regard his stroke as a positive event in his life. A day when he learned to cherish every single minute on this beautiful, stunning island home on Jersey and his family and friends, he jokes that you never know but hey Spurs might even win the Premier League on the 60th anniversary of their double-winning side, that really would be something to smile about."
Article supplied by The Stroke Association.
