Connecting survivors and caregivers for mutual strength and understanding
The Peer Support Program is designed to offer people who have suffered a stroke the opportunity to talk with a specially selected and trained person with the same or similar injury who has returned to a full and meaningful life. The program promotes:
A Peer Supporter experiences the satisfaction of sharing one-on-one with their Peer and given the opportunity to “tell it like it is.” Peer Supporting can be a rewarding experience for all involved.
If you are interested in learning more about Peer Support and the programs offered through Stroke Awareness Oregon, please submit a form below to connect with our team. Our Peer to Peer Program Coordinator will reach out to you directly to discuss next steps and connect you with a peer that best meets your current recovery needs and wants.
Join our Peer-to-Peer network and share your journey or find support from others who understand.
Our Peer-to-Peer program connects stroke survivors and caregivers for mutual encouragement and shared experiences.
Fill out this form to get connected or to offer your support!
by Jake Sheaffer
“I once threw a canister of my supplement powder at the wall and dented it. That’s something I can’t imagine ever doing before my stroke, but it’s just another part of my recovery to work on.”
______________________________
On an early October weekend in 2019, Alesha Goodman and her longtime boyfriend Drew hiked over 50 miles of rugged desert landscape in the Ochoco National Forest in Central Oregon. They were on a nine-day hunting trip they’d been planning for months. While Drew streaked up the steep slopes of sagebrush and loose rock, Alesha tarried behind breathing heavily, fighting the searing pain radiating from the base of her skull. An active thirty-four-year-old who frequented local gyms, walked her dog daily, and hiked on weekends, Alesha never suspected the severe neck pain and nausea she’d had for the past week and a half were signs of an impending stroke. And not just one stroke, but two. Two potentially fatal strokes that would occur within an hour of each other the day after she returned from the Ochocos.
An only child, Alesha was close to her parents and her grandmother who lived on her parents’ property later in life. As a kid, she delivered newspapers in her Bend, OR neighborhood, and in her spare time, she wrote children’s books for fun and read voraciously, prompting close friends to refer to her as a “living encyclopedia of odd information.”
On the Monday morning after she got home, Alesha sat in traffic at a parkway off -ramp, still in discomfort from the neck pain and the nausea. She had new symptoms, too, dizziness and feeling faint. Regardless of the pain, she readied herself for work, but she had an uneasy feeling about her job.
Over the weekend, Alesha had received multiple text messages from her employer, a jewelry company in Central Oregon, about an issue with her company email and password, but with no cell reception, she couldn’t respond to her manager’s concerns. After searching through Alesha’s desk for her email password and not finding it, but instead finding an important legal document she’d already dealt with but had not yet disclosed to her boss, the company hired a specialist to get around the digital safeguards. That day, Alesha was let go from her position.
Purchase the Book to Learn More About Alesha’s Journey!