Training rescue animals helped Caitlin take her life back after a stroke at 22 years old

When Caitlin Kelly woke up from a 10-day coma asking for Taylor Swift, she knew everything had changed, but had no idea a few rescue dogs would help her take her life back.

The Brisbane local was living out of home when she collapsed on the bathroom floor in October 2018, where she lay unable to move until her housemate found her.

Despite Kelly's protests, the flatmate called an ambulance and when she arrived at the local hospital her vital signs seemed fine. That is, until a brain scan revealed something terrible.

READ MORE: 'Unknown number sent me my own address': Rescue worker threatened

There was a life-threatening clot nestled inside the 22-year-old's skull. She'd had a stroke.

Doctors attempted to remove the clot through her arteries nine times, but every attempt was unsuccessful and eventually they had to remove part of her skull to relieve the swelling.

Kelly was put into an induced coma for over a week, during which time surgeons also had to remove part of her temporal lobe due to concerns of seizures.

"I spent 10 days in a coma, then had a really long hospital admission of about nine months, so that was a really isolating and scary time," she tells 9Honey.

"But I woke up from my coma because I remembered I had tickets to Taylor Swift's concert the next day. I woke up talking about how I had to go to the concert."

These days she jokes Taylor Swift saved her life, but the nine months she spent in hospital recovering from her newly acquired brain injury were anything but a fairytale.

The stroke had affected her ability to eat, walk and more and it took a long time to adjust to, especially for her partner of 18 months.

"Both myself and my partner were grieving the loss of the 'original' Caitlin, and life as we knew it. It really took a toll on our relationship, but we eventually found our feet," she says.

READ MORE: Cost of living crisis forcing Aussies to abandon their pets?

Kelly also had to learn how to ask for and accept help from others now she had a disability, which often felt like giving up part of her dignity and independence.

"I felt a sense of embarrassment or shame around having a stroke so young. I didn't feel I could really relate to my friends anymore; none of them had any disabilities," she says.

Sadly, some of her friends couldn't or wouldn't adapt to the changes in Kelly's life, which now revolved around hospital visits, specialists appointments and recovery.

WATCH: New study gives insight into strokes?

"I lost half a decade of my early twenties to hospital visits and appointments ¨C what was meant to be the prime of my life," she says.

"I felt really stuck. My friends started to move on with their lives; a lot of them got married, bought houses or had children. They moved on without me and I felt really left behind."

It left her in a state of deep isolation, which only got worse when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced the nation into lockdown. That's when a support worker changed her life.

They suggested Kelly look into Happy Paws Happy Hearts (HPHH), a program which provides a community for vulnerable people to come together and share a mutual love of animals, learn new skills, and give back in a meaningful way.?

Working with the RSPCA, it helps connect people like Kelly with shelters to socialise and train rescue animals and help them get adopted. It sounded perfect to her.

In 2021, she got a spot in the program at a local shelter and knew she'd made the right choice from her very first day there after months of isolation.

READ MORE: Australia's most popular dog breed branded 'worst nightmare'

"I suddenly had an obsession with corgis after my stroke and I was really hoping that I would get to meet one, but it's kind of rare at shelters," she remembers thinking on her first day.

"But I walked in the door and Cheddar came out, this little corgi named after [the dog from] Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and it was love at first sight. I was so excited and I actually got to train him."

Kelly had to start with small shelter tasks before learning how to train animals like Cheddar, but from the moment she started working there her confidence bloomed.

"It's not just about getting to hang out with dogs or cats," she explains.

"HPHH was such a wonderful opportunity because at last there were people like me, I even met another person that had a brain injury and we had lots of similar experiences."

"It's comforting and it's something to be really proud of as well."

It was the first time she really got to connect with people who knew exactly what she was going through outside of a medical setting and Kelly kept going from strength to strength.

Before long she was helping socialise senior dogs, who often get overlooked in shelters, to help them get adopted and she's even trained a few unusual animals.

"The weirdest one was getting to train a pig. I didn't even know that you could do that," she laughs.

The animals she works with offer companionship after so much isolation following her stroke, but she also loves that they will never judge her - they accept her as she is.

As much as she loves spending time cuddling and training the rescues, the best part of her work is seeing them get adopted by loving families and leave the shelter.

They're also more likely to be taken in by families where one or more members live with a disability, as they're used to it after working with Kelly and other HPHH participants.

READ MORE: The $27 trick to updating your well-worn couch

Now she's a confident 27-year-old, but she still has people constantly telling her: "You're too young. There's no way you could have had a stroke".

It's disappointing to see so many Australians still have such outdated misconceptions about strokes, which can affect Aussies of any age, but now Kelly has the confidence to speak up.

After graduating from the program, she was crowned the first ever Happy Paws Happy Hearts Ambassador and has used that title to share her story and educate people.

Now she's encouraging other young Aussies to get involved with the program too.

The program changed her life in ways she didn't think were possible after her stroke and has given her so much confidence and she wants the same for other people with disabilities.

"I would encourage anyone that wants to get back out there after maybe acquiring a new disability to do it. It's comforting and it's something to be really proud of as well," she says.

For more information about Happy Paws Happy Hearts, go to the website here.

The rescue pets looking for their forever homes

View Gallery