An estimated 50,000 people suffer strokes in Canada each year. In August, Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Alan Frew joined their ranks.
Now, the lead singer of the iconic Canadian synth-pop band Glass Tiger is on the road to recovery, but he wants to help others avoid similar struggles.
Frew's health challenge began one night last month, when he went to sleep after wrapping up production on a new album, which included gruelling, 10-hour days. The next morning he awoke with the symptoms of a stroke.
"My arm was really heavy, my leg was heavy and I just knew something wasn't right," Frew recalled in an interview with CTV News.
Despite Frew’s sudden weakness, the 58-year-old insisted on maintaining his plans for the day.
"I did the sort of macho thing,” Frew said. “I was scheduled to go golfing with my son, so I got my golf gear on.”
After his symptoms worsened on the golf course, Frew went to hospital.
There, doctors discovered that he had suffered a stroke in his sleep.
"I was looking at (my arm) and I couldn't move it," Frew recalled.
Since Frew suffered his stroke while asleep, he wasn’t a candidate for the standard stroke treatment of a “clot-busting” drug known as tPA, which must be administered within 4.5 hours after symptoms begin.
In the first 48 hours after the stroke, Frew struggled to perform everyday tasks such as getting up to go to the bathroom.
"It was a disaster and I just felt like my life was over," Frew said.
Frew had been diagnosed with hypertension and high cholesterol two years earlier, and his doctor prescribed him drugs to treat the conditions.
But after losing weight from a training regimen that included swimming, the singer said he felt so good, he stopped taking his prescriptions. Looking back, Frew said that was a "mistake.”
"I wouldn't have had this stroke if I stayed on my medication.”
Now, Frew is in rehab to regain motion on the right side of his body – in his leg, arm and hand in particular.
"It takes a lot of effort to get my brain to identify what I want my hand to do," he said.
He’s also using his star power -- generated from hits such as "Don't Forget Me," "Someday," "I'm Still Searching," and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic anthem "I Believe" -- to help others avoid a similar fate.
Part of that has involved Frew sharing his struggles on social media. On Instagram, Frew is seen in photos walking with a cane. In another post, he talks about how swimming is helping him recover.
"Thousands of people have written to me, that they know they are hypertensive and haven't done anything about it," Frew said. "Many of them are saying it's a wakeup call to see me like this."
Dr. Rick Swartz, a neurologist at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said Frew's outreach efforts could change the way some people think about strokes, and open people's eyes to the possible warning signs.
Symptoms of a stroke to watch for include a drooping face, sudden numbness of the arm or leg, sudden confusion or slurred and jumbled speech, difficulty seeing in one or both eyes, sudden dizziness or loss of balance and coordination, and a sudden severe headache with no known cause.
"These are the kinds of stories that have that instant impact," said Swartz, who is also a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Frew -- who is now back on medication for blood pressure and cholesterol -- hopes to be healthy for the release of his new album and wants to be back on stage before Christmas.
With files from CTV's medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
