This article is from page 4 of the 2011-01-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A LOCAL councillor is advocating the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle after surviving a major health scare last year.
Pat Daly, a Fianna Fáil member of Clare County Council, suffered a stroke while at work in Ennis in September 2010.
Cllr Daly, who has worked for 18 years as a personal assistant to the outgoing Minister for Defence and Clare TD, Tony Killeen, was subsequently diagnosed as having an irregular heartbeat.
He recalled, “I was at work and coming up to lunch hour, I got a bit of dizziness and my voice slurred and I couldn’t speak straight. I put it down to a cold but I wasn’t 100 per cent sure. I went home, my wife was there, a few neighbours came in and medical people. My wife rang the ambulance. I was hospitalised and I was diagnosed with a stroke. I was out of work for almost three months.”
He said, “It was a desperate shock, traumatic. I didn’t expect it. The family were great. Brothers and sisters and their family and my own family, my wife, two sons and a daughter. They were great in the hospital and when I came home.”
The 56-year-old father of three was treated at Ennis General Hospital and is currently on a course of the blood-thinning agent, Warfarin.
The Ennis native admits he was fortunate to survive the incident. He said, “I was very lucky because I made a full recovery and a lot of people don’t.”
Cllr Daly explained that his lifestyle has changed since his recovery from illness.
He said, “There’s been a big change in my life. You have to watch the diet. I eat a lot of fish now. I go walking. It’s the best form of exercise, walking. I’m watching the diet and drinking plenty of water.”
Cllr Daly is now encouraging more people to stay healthy and active.
He explained, “I wasn’t a great man for walking. People in their late 40s, 50s, 60s, they don’t get enough exercise and they need to walk a couple of miles every day, which I do now. I played a game of golf on Sunday morning – that was all I did. I thought that by playing golf on a Sunday morning, I was fit. But you need to do more. You need to do a bit of walking.”
Cllr Daly, who topped the poll in the Ennis area when he was first elected to Clare County Council in 1999, receives regular treatment at the outpatient’s clinic at Ennis General Hospital. “It’s a fantastic facility, a great facility,” he said.