For RN Susan Robertson, a busy hockey mom, nothing was out of the ordinary. She was constantly on the go, taking her kids to practices or weekend tournaments for hockey and baseball. Then, at 37, she had a stroke. “I first went to the clinic with a sore left arm. They thought it was an arterial clot, so I went to the hospital,” she says. “When I got there I had multiple pulmonary embolisms. I knew what was happening (in the emergency department), but lost the use of everything. I couldn’t speak,” she recalls. Robertson stayed in the hospital for three weeks and didn’t fully recover her speech, mobility, or full use of her right side until a year later. The experience was frightening, she says. Now, thanks to a new program called Peers Fostering Hope, launched in Windsor in March, stroke survivors can meet with other survivors so they do not feel alone during recovery. Robertson has become a volunteer with the program, and hopes to help others going through the same thing she did. “I will be able to share my story and listen to theirs. I can provide support and give them hope that there is life after a stroke.” (Windsor Star, Feb. 13)