TO sportswoman Janette Cardy, a stroke was once something which only affected older people.

Then she too suffered a ‘brain attack’ which threatened to end everything she had worked for.

Miss Cardy, 42, from Witney, has competed nationally in swimming and running since she was a child and in 2003 and 2004 competed for Great Britain in Biathle – the run/swim/run event.

But in 2010 she began to lose weight and despite being unable to sleep, had huge amounts of ‘hyper’ energy.

She explained: “I went to see a physio because I hurt my neck. He was really concerned about my symptoms and told me to see my GP.

“I was sent for an MRI scan and it was then, in 2011, that a doctor told me I had had a stroke.”

She continued: “I looked back on the previous few months and it made sense.

“I remembered in particular, a day in February that year when I was hot, and shaky and couldn’t even hold a cup.”

She added: “Of course it was a huge shock to hear I had had a stroke. I was young and fit.

“I learned I had something called Graves’ Disease, which meant my thyroid was malfunctioning and this could have caused the stroke.

“I was determined to stay fit and carry on training. But there was more to come.”

Miss Cardy, who set up her own company – Janette Cardy Fitness – five years ago, finished a gym session one day and lost all sensation in her legs.

She said: “It was terrifying. I was rushed to hospital with a suspected second stroke, but it turned out that I had a kind of neural ‘episode’. The doctors tested me for MS, but found no signs and could not really explain it.”

In December 2011, her thyroid was removed. Miss Cardy said: “As well as being unable to run or swim the operation damaged my vocal chords and I could not speak either – this meant I could not run my business.

“I got quite low. But one day in hospital I wrote a note of ‘goals’ and top was my aim to wear the Team GB vest again and I think that really gave me the strength to battle on.”

Despite monthly health checks and medication she will have to take for the rest of her life, Miss Cardy has spent the last two and half years focused on her sport and her business.

She said: “On May 5 I attended the GB World Aquathlon (750m swim/5k) trials in Bedford and was thrilled when I qualified for the GB squad for the 2013 London ITU event at Hyde Park in London on September 11.”

She added: “I still have to be very careful about my health, and I still have a lot of training to do, but I feel so proud of what I have achieved.

“For a year or so after my stroke I worried constantly that it would happen again, but not anymore.

“Now I am just concentrating on a successful future - and wearing that GB vest!”