'I thought I was unbreakable then I woke up dribbling and unable to speak at 34'

'I thought I was unbreakable then I woke up dribbling and unable to speak at 34' Hylton Smith thought he was fit and healthy thanks to his work and his hobby A Shropshire dad who woke up one morning unable to speak while suffering a stroke aged 34 has said that it was a “wake-up call” to turn his life around, losing over three stone over the years and changing his lifestyle so he can be around to see his daughter grow up. Hylton Smith, now 46, said he thought he was “unbreakable” before suffering the health shock when he was 34. He was a keen rugby player – though admits that the rugby lifestyle came with a lot of drinking and eating junk food – and works in construction, so considered himself relatively fit and gave no real thought to his health. However, in 2014, Hylton woke up one morning with a blinding headache, confused and unable to speak coherently, and later learned that he had had a stroke, with doctors discovering he also had a congenital heart defect that may have caused it. From then, he realised that he could not take his life and health for granted any more. As father to Darcy, then aged 18 months, and husband to Hayley, who was 32 at the time and now aged 44, he decided he needed to put his health first and change his lifestyle. “I just kick myself that I waited for the wake-up call before getting things in place – I wish I’d listened to people who gave you advice throughout life to lose weight or just maintain your weight, but instead it was more clever to go out and eat that extra kebab!” Hylton told PA Real Life. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m no angel, and it was brilliant at the time, but…I am really lucky today that I’ve got a second go at changing things.” In 2014, when Hylton was 34, he woke up one morning for work and had a terrible headache that he said “felt like someone was putting a six-inch nail through my right temple”. Nevertheless, he continued trying to get ready for work, but felt confused and disoriented. He remembers going into his then 18-month-old daughter’s room “for whatever reason”, and had leaned over her cot and realised he was dribbling on her. Twenty minutes later, his wife came in to check on him, as he’d been in Darcy’s room for an unusually long time. When she asked if he was OK, Hylton tried to respond but found he couldn’t form any words and was talking gibberish. Concerned, his wife drove him to their local hospital, where doctors told him they believed he was having a migraine and sent him home with some painkillers. He slept for the next 23 hours, and when he woke up the pain was still there. “A bit of my speech had come back at that point but I still didn’t really know where I was, and obviously my wife was worried that something had gone on,” he said. Hylton then went to his GP, who said that he thought Hylton had had a stroke. He decided to pay for a private scan to speed up the process, as his doctor advised that in the first 28 days after having a stroke, you’re more susceptible to having another. Four days after the scan, Hylton was told that, in fact, he had had a double stroke, and he was prescribed blood thinners to try to prevent it from happening again. The idea that he might have a stroke had never occurred to Hylton, who said: “I thought I was unbreakable at 34.” Hylton is not alone in feeling this way. Seven in 10 UK men have ignored worrying health symptoms, according to new research from not-for-profit private healthcare provider Benenden Health, and 66% of men surveyed said they have experienced a health-related “wake-up call” that made them think more seriously about their health. Hylton’s scan also revealed that he had a hole in his heart that had been present since he was born, which he had no prior knowledge of. For the next year, Hylton’s speech remained slurred, and even today he still struggles with his memory and with finding words. “The amount of times I’d say ‘shall we book a hospital?’ instead of ‘shall we book a hotel?’ – it drives me nuts,” he said. In 2015, Hylton had an operation to patch the hole in his heart, and he has had no complications since. He now takes one blood thinner a day, and a statin tablet a day to lower his cholesterol, though he has been told the latter is purely as a precaution. Prior to having the operation, Hylton weighed 16.5 stone, but lost 1.5 stone in order to have the procedure, getting his weight down to 15 stone. However, the operation meant he needed to give up rugby, and his sedentary recovery period led him to steadily regain weight. By September 2025, Hylton was at his “heaviest ever” – 18st 11lbs – which he described as “stupid”. He realised then that he needed to change his lifestyle and get his health back on track, fearing that if he didn’t take better care of himself, he might not be around to see his daughter, now 13, grow up. Describing his old lifestyle, Hylton said he was “not taking my health seriously at all”. “I’d eat lots of Greggs! Lots of drinking, rugby tours – I’m sure they take off about three or four years of your life every time you go on one,” he said. “You were fit, because you were training twice a week and then playing the game, but I think the health benefits are probably overweighed by the amount of drinking you do and the amount of rubbish you eat. “When I drove around pricing jobs for work I got into the habit of not taking lunch, and stopping to eat takeaways – it was just being lazy. But certainly since then we’ve taken our health a lot more seriously.” In September 2025, Hylton said he discovered Man v Fat – a football league exclusively for overweight men who want to get fitter and healthier. He had tried other weight-loss regimens but found it difficult to maintain a healthier lifestyle, and particularly missed the camaraderie and support that comes from playing team sports. Since September, Hylton has lost 15% of his body weight – bringing his weight down from almost 19 stone to 15st 8lb – and while he said “I still like to party, I still go out for drinks and have a laugh”, by maintaining an active lifestyle through football and running he has found a balance where he can “still live a normal life, but just take things a bit more seriously and don’t do everything to excess”. Hylton said that having his health wake-up call at 34 has made him realise that he is not as “unbreakable” as he thought, and advises other young men who might feel the same to consider their health and lifestyle before it’s too late. “Your body’s not unbreakable,” he said. “Sadly, my wake-up call was from having a stroke, but I’m sure I could have avoided it or helped to avoid it if I’d have just taken my health a bit more seriously. So, still go out and have your party, still live life and experience lots of new things, but just try and take it a bit more seriously.” For more information about Benenden Health’s The Wake-Up Call campaign visit www.benenden.co.uk/wake-up-call.