Adam Watkins, 42, from Cardiff lost the ability to move his left side and struggled to speak after suffering a mini stroke, known as a transient ischemic attack (TIA), at home last summer
23:40, 04 Jan 2026Updated 23:59, 04 Jan 2026
Adam Watkins partner Laura Milford
A bloke who initially brushed off his symptoms as the result of a “bad night’s sleep” was shocked to find out that he had actually suffered a stroke, triggered by his £200-a-month smoking habit.
Adam Watkins, 42, found himself unable to move his left side and experienced difficulty speaking following an unexpected stroke at his home last summer. His partner, Laura Milford, 36, initially mistook his slurred speech for drunkenness, but when his face began to sag mid-cigarette, it was clear something was seriously wrong and he was swiftly whisked off to hospital.
Adam had experienced a mini stroke, also known as a transient ischemic attack (TIA), and doctors informed him that his quarter-century-long smoking habit, coupled with an inherited blood disorder, were the culprits behind his health scare.
The Cardiff-based civil servant recalled: “I woke up on a Sunday morning and my left arm felt a bit numb. I just thought I’d slept on it awkwardly. Then over the course of the next hour or two it got worse and worse.
Adam Watkins thought he had just “slept awkwardly”
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“I was speaking with Laura and she thought I was drunk because I was slurring my words quite a lot. We were in the garden having a cigarette when I lost all control of my left arm, dropping my cigarette. Laura noticed the left side of my face started to droop, and that’s when we decided that I should probably head to hospital.”
Adam found himself addicted to smoking after just “five to six cigarettes”. He recalled: “I can remember it vividly. I was 17 and in a nightclub that I was too young to be in. A girl asked me for a cigarette but I didn’t have one, so I bought some just so I could impress her. Almost straight away I felt the craving and the need for it – plus I thought it looked cool, so I carried on smoking for the next 25 years.”, reports Wales Online.
After suffering a stroke four months ago, Adam was rushed to the University Hospital of Wales. He shared: “They knew straight away that I’d had a stroke. At the time I didn’t really know how to react, but when I learnt about what a stroke does to you – and the catastrophic consequences it can have – it began to sink in. Every doctor and nurse I spoke to said I was incredibly young to be having a stroke.”
Adam’s risk of stroke was already elevated due to his existing condition, polycythemia, which causes an overproduction of red blood cells.
“I just had this ‘it’ll never happen to me’ attitude – but it did,” he admitted. “Smoking is especially dangerous if you have polycythemia because it thickens the blood and reduces oxygen delivery around the body. Smoking increases carbon monoxide levels, causing your body to make even more red blood cells, which raises the risk of blood clots, stroke, and heart attack.”
Adam confessed the TIA served as the “wake up call” he desperately needed to kick his smoking habit. He conquered the addiction with support from Help Me Quit, a free NHS-funded smoking cessation service operating from his GP surgery, alongside his partner Laura – who simultaneously quit.
Following their decision to stub out cigarettes several months ago, his polycythemia has shown remarkable improvement. He said: “A couple of weeks after stopping smoking, it felt like I had a third lung.
“You can smell things better, you can taste things better and my smoker’s cough has gone. I was spending upwards of £200 a month on cigarettes and tobacco, but now I’ve stopped it feels like I’ve had a pay rise.”
Laura said: “As a couple, we’re getting out of the house more together and going for nice walks – something Adam couldn’t do often because of the pain in his legs caused by the narrowed arteries and polycythemia.”
Both Adam and Laura have encouraged anyone contemplating quitting to explore Help Me Quit and discover what support is available. Cathy Fisher, smoking cessation practitioner, expressed immense pride in the couple’s combined determination to quit.
“They had quite a difficult journey before they came to see me – and they have absolutely smashed it,” she said. “They’ve had a rocky path along the way but seeing them quit together was brilliant. In fact, there’s a 67 per cent higher chance of a successful quit as a couple than if you try to quit alone. That was really evident with Adam and Laura as they kept each other balanced. Adam was an embedded, 30-a-day smoker, but even he saw a way out of it.”