'Super fit' 30-year-old had dreams destroyed after suffering stroke in 'cruel' twist of fate
A 'super fit' Brit who'd dreamed of moving to Australia has sadly had to return home after he suffered a serious stroke just as he was meant to be starting his new job.
Liam Rudd, 30, had got a a new job as a fleet mechanic Down Under but on 11 November he had a stroke while in the shower and fell to his bathroom floor paralysed.
His girlfriend Stella Slinger Thompson, 28, found him there and Liam was rushed to hospital for two rounds of emergency surgery to remove blood clots from his brain before being placed into an induced coma.
The couple are now having to leave Liam's dream behind and return to the UK because the cost of rehabilitation in Australia is too expensive for them.
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Doctors are not sure what exactly caused the stroke for the 30-year-old but they think it may have something to do to a fibroelastoma, a tumour that can grow on the heart valves.
His recovery might take as long as 18 months, and Liam said: "It was a huge shock. I don't remember too much from the lead up. I didn't feel any symptoms coming on.
"I just remember having the stroke and being paralysed on the floor and scrambling and trying to pull myself up but being unable too.
"I was due to start a new job as a fleet mechanic for a fleet engineer company. I love work so I was disappointed. But at the same time there was nothing I could do to change anything so you have to embrace it.
"My plan is to go back to the UK to undergo intensive rehabilitation and then come back to Australia anyway. That's still an open opportunity."
He added that his new employer had been 'very understanding' about his predicament so if he can complete his rehabilitation and then get back to Australia he might be able to pick things up again.
Liam's girlfriend Stella has set up a GoFundMe page, which can be donated to here, to raise money so they can travel back to the UK and get the best possible rehab for him.
On the day he had his stroke she'd been set to meet Liam for lunch with friends and got worried when he wasn't answering his phone, when she found him on the bathroom floor she thought he'd suffered from a concussion.
Remembering the moment she found him, Stella said: "He was late picking me up. Usually he is a bit late so I didn't think much of it. But I was calling him for over an hour.
"Then finally after an hour he picked up. He wasn't making any sense. All I could make out was him saying 'help'. So I rushed round and also called three of his friends.
"We arrived and found him on the bathroom floor. He'd had a shower clearly and fainted or hit his head. He was tapping his head and tapping the floor to communicate to us that he'd fallen."
While Liam's hospital expenses are covered by a reciprocal agreement between the UK and Australia that doesn't extend to his rehabilitation, and because he's not an Australian citizen and doesn't have a sponsorship he'd have to pay for it.
The couple have been advised that their best option is to return to the UK where Liam can get free help from the NHS, and at this point Stella said their situation was 'a lot of living in limbo and trying to stay positive but not really knowing anything'.
They don't know whether Liam will need to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life or exactly how long his rehabilitation will take.
His mum Mandy Mayhew flew out to Australia to visit her son and said she'd 'never cried so much in my life', saying her son was 'super fit' and 'eats really clean'.
Joe Harker