Watch: Husband issues fundraising plea to help wife Kate Green walk again after devastating stroke

But today, 42-year-old Kate Green is battling to fully walk and talk again after a devastating stroke left her close to death.

And now a campaign has been launched to get Kate, a public health worker, a place in Sheffield's STEPS Rehabilitation centre.

Kate, described by friends as ‘selfless’ has run the London and Manchester marathons and worked to set up the Clifton Park park run in Rotherham nine years ago.

Yet in December, doctors feared she would die after she suffered a devastating stroke at home.

Husband Adam had just welcomed her and their seven-year-old son, Stan, home from the youngster’s swimming lesson, on December 2, when Kate said she had a headache.

He told her to lie down, asking if she’d had enough to drink during the day.

He stayed with her – and become increasingly worried as she quickly deteriorated in front of him

"She said she felt vacant and floppy,” said Adam. “In a few minutes she had totally deteriorated.”

She was unable to speak, and Adam called his GP. He was told to ring an ambulance.

With his son upset, he asked Stan to be a big boy and keep an eye out for the ambulance.

He got help from the neighbours, who looked after the worried boy while the ambulance crew worked at the house. By this point, Kate was struggling to breathe.

Induced coma at Rotherham hospital

Living close to Rotherham Hospital, in Moorgate, she was in an induced coma at the hospital within 30 minutes.

A CT scan revealed she had suffered an acute pontine stroke, in part of the brain associated with its most basic and important functions.

Doctors feared she would die, and advised Adam to call her close relatives, because there was concern it may be the last chance they had to see her.

Adam said: “Thankfully she lived to fight another day, but the consultant warned he’d never seen anyone survive this type of stroke.

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"A week later Kate opened her eyes for the first time. Still totally paralysed, suffering from ‘locked in syndrome’, she could only tell Stan she loved him by lifting her eyes three times.

“At this point, I was asked by the consultant to accept the likelihood of death or severe disability. The outlook was bleak.

“But then little miracles started to happen…

“Powered by a Rocky montage playlist put together by friends, Kate channeled her legendary stubbornness and started to make gradual improvements. Over the next few weeks, with the help of the incredible hospital physios she got feeling back in her left side, then her right side and can now stand up. After a tracheotomy removal, she started to learn how to speak again and can now be understood most of the time.

“Today, Kate is absolutely determined to continue retraining her brain. Against the odds, there is a chance she will be able to regain full feeling and mobility through extensive physio work. However, with limited NHS funding available, we must make important decisions now about the next phases of her rehab.”

Steps Rehabilitation Centre at Millhouses, Sheffield

Now he is hoping to raise £30,000 to pay towards the cost of specialist, intensive therapy, with the Steps Rehabilitation Centre at Millhouses the destination of choice, because a relative has already used it, and moved from wheelchair to walking in a few weeks.

A crowdfunding has been set up, and already £23,500 has been donated. You can contribute by logging onto https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kates-miraculous-recovery.

Kate still needs physio and voice therapy. Her family wants to give her an intense and structured programme to help her back. She can already stand, but not yet walk. Adam says her speech is ‘laboured’ and there are sounds she struggles to say.

But from a time she could not even blink, and had to have eye drops put into her eyes instead, she has made massive progress, he said.

She cannot cough to clear her throat. Adam has to make her laugh to do that, which is a similar motion.

"I’m having to be a comedian, which I’m not very good at,” he said

He said since the stroke, she’s said her aim is work and volunteer again.

They are hoping to raise enough money for six weeks of intensive private rehabilitation to give Kate the best possible chance of making a good recovery. If they achieve that, or if NHS funding is made available, the family will use donations to fund essential alterations to their house to accommodate Kate’s return. If more is raised, It will be given to the NHS.

He said: “Stan broke my heart last week when he said, ‘I’m jealous of my friends because they have their mummies and I don’t.”

Adam said Kate was moving forwards slowly, but he realised it could be a two year process.

"It’s been magnificent so far, compared to how things were 90 days ago, when they were talking about turning the machine off. At that point the consultant was saying no one he had seen had survived one of these strokes.

"Our family have been great and we’ve found out we have incredible friends who have helped me and my son. I’ve been to the hospital every day for 10 hours – it has been a horrible time, but Kate is a formidable woman, and she’s a real fighter.”

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