A truly inspirational and moving biography. Gonna Fly Now! reveals the true-life story of Sheffield mum-of-three Kate Allatt who unleashes the highs and lows of life after a stroke in February 2010 at the age of 39. A case study of how an immensely positive attitude, inexhaustible determination and the support of friends and family can overcome the hugest of hurdles
Click here to listen to Kate Allatt interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Gonna Fly Now! Locked-in Laughter Unleashed: Funny Tales from a Stroke Survivor Synopsis
Imagine waking up in a hospital bed and you cannot move a single part Shortlisted Olympic Torchbearer of your body apart from your eyelids. You have had a major brainstem stroke and initially want to die… but then you decide to fight back.
Fast-forward 18 months. You are on holiday with friends in Majorca. You are speaking, talking and walking again against all odds. You have an important story to tell as do so many other stroke survivors and their loved ones.
Gonna Fly Now! shows the reader that despite the high standards she sets herself, Kate Allatt is not superhuman. She is extraordinary, resilient and determined and after all she has endured, she has retained a healthy sense of humour. This book will make you cry. It will also make you laugh out loud.
“I communicated by blinking to tell friends to hide the twinkly ocean wave music. I had a hole from my tracheotomy, not a blowhole. Perhaps as well as suffering from a major stroke doctors thought I had morphed into a b***** dolphin! I much preferred listening to The Smiths”.
“Kate’s story is the most amazing and moving I have heard in my 26 years as a radio presenter.” BBC PRESENTER RONY ROBINSON
“Kate is remarkable in every way and living proof that all bales can be won, no maer what.” MICHAEL FINNIGAN 121 CEO AND AUTHOR OF ‘IMPOSSIBLE TO INEVITABLE: THE CATALYST FOR POSITIVE CHANGE’
“As the story of a ‘survivor personality’ par excellence, it shows what grit, resilience and bloody-mindedness can somemes achieve.” COLIN FELTHAM, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CRITICAL COUNSELLING STUDIES, SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
Author
About Kate Allatt
Kate Allatt, 41, is a mum of three who lives in Dore and suffered a massive brainstem stroke in Feb 2010. Kate was diagnosed with Locked-In syndrome and was told she would never walk or talk again and wired up to a life support machine for nine weeks. I suppose think of the sad story the ‘Diving Bell & Butterfly.’
At first, Kate wanted to die but then she decided to fight back and moved her thumb nine weeks after her stroke which gave her hope she would one day get back to 'normal.'
Now, she is walking talking and driving again and has proven the medical profession wrong. She is a medical and inspirational speaker and ambitious, driven woman, who has a genuine interest in anything to do with stroke recovery, neuroplasticity and positive thinking on coping with illness. She has featured in the media many times over the last 18 months. She has been interviewed on the Jeremy Vine BBC radio show and ITV's This Morning as well as the Holding Out For A Hero ITV game show.
Her new book is called 'Gonna Fly Now! locked-In laughter Unleashed' - a self-publish and sequel to her first book Running Free: Breaking Free from Locked- in syndrome, published in May 2011.
Winner Extraordinary Woman 2011 & a finalist for the Jane Tomlinson award for courage at the Yorkshire Women of Achievement awards May 2012. Now an inspirational speaker, charity campaigner... What's next?
