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When Silverdale father Jamie Summers suffered a haemorrhagic stroke at just 39 years old, he was focused on work, raising two young sons with wife Sarah and building his career. Stroke was the furthest thing from his mind.
“I always thought a stroke was something that happened to people a lot older than me,” Jamie says. But on December 14, 2019, everything changed in an instant.
Sarah noticed the left side of his face beginning to droop and immediately recognised something was seriously wrong. She called an ambulance – a decision Jamie firmly believes saved his life.
“I honestly credit Sarah with saving me,” he says. “If she hadn’t acted so quickly, things could have turned out very differently.”
Jamie spent 10 days in intensive care before finally being discharged home just in time for Christmas – a milestone he had stubbornly set his mind on achieving.
But recovery was far tougher than he anticipated.
He had to learn to walk again and battled debilitating fatigue while trying to reconnect with family life and keep up with his young boys.
“A stroke changes every part of your life,” he says. “People see you survive and think you’re okay again, but recovery is long and there are things you continue carrying physically and emotionally years later.”
Just six months after his stroke, Jamie returned full-time to his role as a Project Director at The Building Intelligence Group. Armed with lived experience and more than 25 years in the sector, he became determined to help prevent others in the industry from going through what he did.
That determination led to the launch of Health15 – an award-winning workplace health initiative developed in partnership between Stroke Aotearoa NZ and The Building Intelligence Group.
The programme delivers free 15-minute health checks directly to construction sites, removing barriers for workers who often struggle to prioritise their own health amid long hours, physically demanding work and high-pressure environments.
“We have a real opportunity to save lives by reaching workers who might never otherwise get a health check. In some cases, we’ve identified workers on the brink of stroke and got them urgently to hospital before it was too late,” Jamie says.
Since launching as a trial in 2023, Health15 has already reached more than 2400 workers across 66 sites nationwide, involving major industry partners including Naylor Love, Fletcher Living and Christchurch Airport.
The programme is now expanding in collaboration with eight of Aotearoa’s leading health charities, screening for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, epilepsy and cancer.
Jamie says many workers are shocked to discover underlying health issues through the programme, particularly high blood pressure, the number one modifiable risk factor for stroke.
“A stroke will change your life forever,” he says. “Getting your blood pressure checked could genuinely save your life.”
For Jamie, the journey is about far more than fundraising.
“It’s about showing people that stroke can happen to anyone,” he says.“But it’s also about showing survivors that life doesn’t stop after stroke.”
Stroke Aotearoa encourages people to remember F.A.S.T: Face drooping • Arms weakness • Speech difficulty. Take action – call 111 immediately
