Hi, my name is Damian Toohey, and I survived a stroke in 2021. I am also a regular at my local parkrun and I have completed over 100 parkrun events since my stroke. I make note of this on my milestone shirt to start conversations about this serious subject and to inspire others. This running group is the next step on my journey to raise awareness and educate others on how to recognise the signs of stroke.

Did you realise that one Australian suffers a stroke every 11 minutes and 1 in 4 of those stroke events occurs to someone under 65 years of age?

If we say that a parkrun event takes about an hour to complete, it could be said that 5 strokes occur per parkrun event in Australia. In other words, during the time it took me to achieve my milestone shirt, 500 Australians suffered a stroke. As parkrun is a 5km event, that can also be thought of as one Australian suffers a stroke for every kilometre completed at parkrun.

The aihw.gov.au reported that "On average, 23 Australians died of stroke each day in 2022 " (8,400 deaths). If you think that through, that is roughly 1 in every 6 stroke events resulted in death. Using this figure and applying it to my milestone shirt, it works out that approximately 95 Australians lost their life to stroke during the time it took to achieve this milestone.

As I work towards turning black (100) to green (250), I don't want my next shirt to represent a stroke for every kilometre run or that nearly every parkrun event resulted in a loss of life to stroke.

By participating in parkrun and being active, you are on the right path to help me achieve that result. 

Take the next step and help save a life or the quality of a life today by knowing the F.A.S.T. or B.E.-F.A.S.T. signs of stroke.

As a parkrun participant, help remember the signs of stroke by always finishing F.A.S.T and by adding the Group (Running Club) "Finish F.A.S.T for Stroke Awareness & Prevention" to your parkrun profile (You can have up to 5 running groups).

To add the group to your parkrun profile, open the page https://www.parkrun.com.au/groups/49749/ and use the join this group link.

For more information on the process, refer to How to update a parkrun profile (Refer Running Group/Club) 

And also remember to always finish F.A.S.T as you cross the finish line.

Damian Toohey
Stroke Survivor & Parkrun participant
September 2025