Ten years ago today TV sports presenter Gary Newbon suffered a life threatening stroke. He tells Graham Young how he hopes his recovery will help to inspire the 150,000 other people who go through the same trauma every year

On February 2 2002 Gary Newbon woke up and his hotel bedroom started spinning.

The previous day he had covered the Manchester United v Sunderland game, and feeling ill, was driven along the M6 to see a doctor and fell asleep.

Mr Newbon, 66, said: “And that’s when I had the stroke. I couldn’t move my right leg – that was my biggest shock. I couldn’t get my words out. I was slurring. My tongue felt tied up. All I wanted to do was to sleep.

“And I thought... ‘the World Cup is coming up in June, I don’t want to miss that’. Talk about getting your priorities wrong. When I look back, how stupid I was.”

After suffering his stroke, Mr Newbon was taken to the Priory Hospital in Edgbaston.

“I woke up at lunchtime and was amazed to see Ron Atkinson at the end of my bed. He said to me: ‘Sorry I’m late, I had to walk round the hospital three times before anybody recognised me.

“The game that afternoon was terrible, Middlesborough nil, Charlton nil. Ron said to me: ‘You’d better move over, this is making me feel ill’. I went to sleep and when I later woke up, I could not speak.”

Mr Newbon believes he was saved by taking a baby aspirin regularly on the advice of a former partner at squash.

“That probably played a major part in making the stroke less serious than it should be.”

He returned to his Solihull home to calls and letters from well wishers.