Dancer told he may never walk or talk again after stroke at 28 makes 'amazing' recovery

Dancer told he may never walk or talk again after stroke at 28 makes 'amazing' recovery Daniel Parsonage, 29, collapsed at the Hawarden Summer Carnival and was told he may never walk or talk again – but the North Wales street dancer has made a remarkable recovery after emergency brain surgery A dancer was told by doctors he would never walk or talk again following a sudden symptomless stroke at the age of 28 - before making an "amazing" recovery. Now, he has vowed to "keep fighting" to fully regain his speech and is hoping to be back on the dance floor within six months. Daniel Parsonage, 29, a former supermarket team leader from North Wales, was getting ready for a group dance at the Hawarden Summer Carnival on July 12 2025 when he said he felt "funny" and suddenly collapsed. Daniel, better known as Dan, was rushed to the Countess of Chester Hospital, where doctors believed the bleeding on his brain caused by high blood pressure to be so severe that there was nothing further they could do. Dan's mother, Claire, 49, said she and Dan's family – including father Wayne, 48, brother Jay, 25, and sister Macey, 22 – were urged to say their goodbyes, before a final review of Dan's brain scans saw him blue-lighted to The Walton Centre in Liverpool. It was there that Dan underwent two emergency operations, including one on July 14 to halt the bleeding and another two days later in which a large portion of his skull was removed to allow his brain to swell more safely. It was following these procedures that doctors warned Dan's family he might never walk or talk again, before he spent four weeks in an induced coma. Since coming round in mid-August 2025, and with the support of speech and physiotherapy, Dan's ability to communicate has progressed from nothing to speaking in full sentences, and he is now able to walk short distances with a mobility aid. He is sharing his story as part of Channel 4's two-part documentary, Trauma: My Broken Brain, coinciding with World Stroke Day on October 29. Dan told PA Real Life: "I hope I feel normal again." Claire said: "From us being told Dan was not going to make it, then he wouldn't be able to walk or talk, to where he is now, it's just amazing. "Until this happened to us, we didn't realise how many people have strokes – and so young too. "So, we just want people to know that they're not alone, there is hope and to just keep fighting." Having specialised in street dance since the age of 11, Dan described his health over the years as "completely fine", with his fitness levels in good shape at the time of his stroke, regularly playing football and training for the Chester Marathon. Just two weeks before the incident, Claire revealed she had been checking her and Wayne's blood pressures using a home device, and on a "rare occasion" they decided to test Dan's levels too, which came back "absolutely fine". "He had absolutely no symptoms," Claire said, of the hours before Dan's stroke. So when Wayne received a call from a friend on July 12 last year informing him that Dan had collapsed, he initially suspected it could simply be a fainting episode. Upon both parents arriving at the scene separately, Claire described finding her son lying on the floor with "sheets around him", limp down one side of his body and having been sick. An ambulance arrived up to an hour after the 999 call was made, and Claire climbed into the back with Dan as they were rushed to the Countess of Chester Hospital. Claire recalled the moment they arrived: "I was taken to a family room on my own and (Dan) was taken through to A&E. "All I remember is them saying, 'You need to call the family in. There's nothing we can do... say your goodbyes'. "It was horrible." Scans and tests revealed a bleed on Dan's brain caused by high blood pressure, before Claire recounted how a consultant neurosurgeon made the decision to blue-light him to The Walton Centre where they could "give it a go" to try to save her son's life. "If (consultant neurosurgeon) Professor (Andrew) Brodbelt hadn't stepped in, Dan wouldn't be here today," Claire said. Two emergency surgeries on July 14 and 16 pulled Dan back from the brink, leaving him in an induced coma. During this period, doctors warned the family that a large portion of Dan's brain would never function again, and that they should prepare themselves for the possibility he might never walk or talk again. Claire said: "As long as he woke up, we didn't care. That's all we wanted." The mother of three described the four weeks spent waiting to see if Dan would regain consciousness as "tough", but said she was "happy" when she witnessed his eyes flicker and then open for 10 minutes. Dan said: "I remember waking up and thinking, 'Where am I?' and that I couldn't speak words." This absence of speech lasted nine weeks in total, until Dan's best friend paid him a visit in hospital one day, and Claire was shocked when Dan said, "Hi Ben!". Dan has since undergone speech therapy to help with his diction, along with eight months of physiotherapy at Clatterbridge rehabilitation centre on the Wirral, where he has progressed from being unable to lift himself up in bed to using a wheelchair and walking with a mobility aid. "I get up and I shower, I put my clothes on, I do my (face) cream and I do my hair," Dan said of his morning routine, after which he takes medication for blood pressure, heart health and to prevent seizures. Dan said his confidence received a significant boost when he no longer needed to wear a helmet, following surgery in February this year to replace the missing section of his skull with an artificial plate. It is this chapter of his story that he shared with production company Stream Media Group from December last year, for a two-part documentary entitled Trauma: My Broken Brain, commissioned by Channel 4 in partnership with the Stroke Association charity. The documentary coincides with World Stroke Day on 29 October and highlights the lengthy road young people can face following a stroke. Dan's ambition is to be able to dance again before his 30th birthday in March 2027. "I hope I see a bigger and better version of myself than ever before," he said. Claire said: "We want to spread awareness that (strokes can) happen to younger people and even when you're told there's no hope that there actually is. "Daniel's showing that because he just keeps fighting all the way through. "He keeps pushing himself and I'm very proud of him."