Triathlete runner left unable to walk after sumo wrestling game caused stroke

A triathlete runner has been left paralysed and with the ‘personality of a child’ after play-fighting in a sumo wrestler suit.

Carol Dickson-Fisher, 52, was rushed to hospital a day after she and wife Nancy, 56, donned the padded suits at a family wedding on August 10.

Doctors discovered she had suffered a stroke, believed to have been caused by a tear in her neck artery, which led to a bleed on the brain.

The IT worker needed to have part of her skull removed, and is now recovering in a rehab centre in Cornwall.

She remains paralysed in her the left side her face, her left arm and leg, struggles with short-term memory and is unable to walk.

Nancy says caring for her wife is like ‘looking after a child’ and wishes the couple had never put on the sumo costumes.

She continued: ‘I am regularly in floods of tears. I still love her and I will stand by her but her but she is not the person I married.’

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Carol had been attending the wedding of Nancy’s daughter Yvonne Neville-Binder, in Laughton, East Sussex, when she injured her neck during the game.

Nancy, a nurse, said she knew her partner had suffered a stroke after sensing her fidgeting in bed the night after the reception.

They called an ambulance, and a CT scan found significant bleeding and swelling in her brain.

Carol then underwent an emergency operation, with Nancy anxiously waiting to hear whether her wife had survived.

Medics discovered there was a tear in her neck artery, and after Nancy told them about the wedding, they deemed the sumo wrestling was the most likely cause.

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Nancy says Carol, who used to be a quiet woman, is now very chatty, gets separation anxiety and constantly sends her messages asking where she is.

She continued: ‘When she was in critical care I brought in a Bagpuss toy for her to squeeze in her right arm when my hand wasn’t there.

‘It has become a crutch and she talks to it – and that is quite distressing. The little toy is almost like an imaginary friend.’

She added: ‘Obviously I am a nurse and I am used to looking after people and I have three children and eight grandchildren – but I never imagined I would have to be looking after my wife in this way.’

Carol should be coming home to Redruth, Cornwall, from the rehab centre on November 15.

The couple recently moved to the area for its outdoor sporting opportunities, but are now far from Nancy’s family, who remain in East Sussex.

They are struggling to survive off on Nancy’s pension and money earned from her 10 hours a week job in a GP surgery.

Nancy is now fundraising for home equipment to help make Carol’s life easier, including an electric wheelchair.

You can donate here.