Robert Smith is a classic family man. Home-owner, with a loving wife and daughter. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. Until 12th September, 2015, when his whole life changed.

It started off like any other day. “My daughter and Lynn, my wife, were going to the cinema with some friends so I went up to Langold (Roberts hometown) and watched the football with my brother, Les.”

He made his way home after meeting up with his brother and proceeded how he would any night, having a shower and relaxing in front of the TV. But when he went to pick up his laptop, it hit.

“All of a sudden, it felt like somebody had hit me over the back of the head with a sledgehammer. The pain was excruciating, I suddenly felt disoriented and dizzy. I just thought ‘This is not right’.”

Originally thinking it was nothing to be concerned about, he took some paracetamol and tried to sleep away the pain, but couldn’t. He was struggling to breathe and swallow while the excruciating pain persevered. He knew something was wrong. “I tried to call my wife, but I couldn’t get hold of her. When the call did finally go through, I told her that something was wrong and I needed her home.”

With heaving traffic following the ending of a concert at Sheffield Arena, she struggled to get home in time, so called her dad to take Rob to the hospital.

Upon being admitted into the hospital, he wasn’t taken seriously. Slumped over and slurring his words, they thought he had been drinking. It was only once his wife arrived who told them he wasn’t drunk that they began to realise something was truly amiss. “They took me for a CT scan, but they had to go to Australia for the results, and after a while it took for that to come back, it showed that there was a bleed on the brain. All of a sudden, they just changed completely. They realised I wasn’t drunk and there was a problem.”

They hooked him up to an IV, and all the necessary monitors. He was driven in a high-priority ambulance to Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital where he was put into intensive care for a few days. “I had to have an MRI scan and they explained what the implications were if it was an aneurism or something different. If it was an aneurysm, they would have to do surgery, but I was one of the very small percentage of people that just get a bleed on the brain.”

A brain haemorrhage, otherwise known as a bleed on the brain, is where blood leaks into or around the brain tissue which can potentially cause life-threatening damage.

The doctors couldn’t explain to him why he had experienced this, it had just happened.

“I asked the doctors, what’s the chance of it happening again? Since nothing had caused it. The doctor told me to just live your life cause there’s as much chance of it happening to you as there is to me or your wife. It’s just one of those things that’s happened to you, just go and live your life.”

Whilst recovering in intensive care, another horrific discovery was made. He was allergic to one of the painkillers that had been administered. “I don’t know what it was, but oh my god, I thought I was going to die.” When the doctors realised something was wrong, they administered something to combat it, but the pain and the shock had already happened. 

As he began to recover in the ICU, he had many questions on his mind; What’s happening to me? Is my wife going to be okay? Will my daughter have to grow up without a dad? When can I get back to work? But once he had been discharged from the hospital, prescribed morphine for the pain that was still unbearable, he realised he wouldn’t be getting back to work anytime soon.

“When you’re laid in hospital, you don’t think it’s as bad as what it is. But as soon as I stood up and tried to walk, it was a complete shock to the system.”

Along with the shock of how much the event had taken on his body, all his daily activities had come to a complete standstill. “I’d walk up the stairs and just be completely exhausted. My wife had to take two weeks off of work to look after me because I just couldn’t do anything for myself.”

It was an incredibly slow, gruelling and painful recovery. “My first steps were up to the end of the drive and back. The day after I’d try halfway up the road and back. The day after that, to the end of the road and back. It was a long process of trying to build myself back up.”

After just over three months off of work, Rob decided to try and make his return. But it was far too soon. “I’ve always pushed myself, even when it’s not felt perfectly right. But with this one I had to accept that it just wasn’t right to go back to work yet.”

Phased return was implemented for four months, ensuring he was recovering whilst also trying to get back into the working routine. But it was still a big stress for him. “I read online that if you have a bleed on the brain, you can have another and it can disable you. If I can’t work I don’t know what I’d do. I’ve got a wife, a child to bring up, and a mortgage to pay. How am I going to manage that?”

He needn’t worry, though. His company paid for all the time he needed off and supported him in any way he needed whilst he got back on his feet. His co-workers would take on many of his responsibilities, making it impossible for him to push himself too far. They were like a family away from home. 

Even though it was a painful time in his life, he does say it’s changed his perspective on life. “I’ve always been a worrier. Always. And I still am. But when you’re laid in bed, thinking about what could have happened, it makes you realise that material things don’t matter. ‘Cause if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”

Reflecting back on the event, he credits his full recovery to his wife, Lynn. “She was brilliant. I called her my rock. She did everything for me.”

Following his full recovery, he took his family on a trip to New York, something he had always promised his wife he would do. “Lynn always wanted to go, and a relative of mine always said he’d take his wife to Hawaii, but he never did. So I wanted to make sure I did that for her.”

Though a tough time, and one he’d rather forget, it truly changed Roberts perspective on life. From appreciating the little things to wanting to experience more of what life has to offer, the resilience he built for himself, and the support from his family, is something he’ll have with him forever.