28 September 2023 , 08:00
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A family have told of their shock after a mum who was "perfectly fine" suffered a nasty turn in bed before ending up on life support and dying within a matter of days.
Zoe Wilson, 42, was rushed to hospital after rolling out of bed unresponsive on September 18. The Fenton-based mum got up in the night but when she returned to her bed had suffered a stroke, medics at Royal Stoke University Hospital established. Over the next few days, Zoe received two operations, one to remove a blood clot and another to tackle a bleed on the brain. A second severe stroke hit on Friday, with Zoe's life support system turned off the following Monday.
Her husband Craig as well as their three children, McCauley, 19, Bradley, 14, and Harvey, 10, were in the hospital the day before to say their goodbyes. Craig, 46, has since described the loss as "very tough" on the kids, with a "distraught" family reeling from Zoe's death. He said: "We’re finding it very tough. One of our boys has got cerebral palsy, he’s deaf and got some brain damage so it’s hard to communicate. The other two are distraught. We took the children up to the hospital on Sunday morning, to come and say goodbye one last time. It’s been very difficult."
The family had a holiday planned for October which Zoe "couldn't wait for" according to sister Sarah Joines, 44. She said: "We’re devastated. She was too young. She couldn’t wait to go on the plane and go on amazing shopping trips, she loved shopping like you wouldn’t believe. We’re going to miss her every minute for the rest of our lives. I can’t believe my sister’s gone." Tributes from her family and friends has since poured in, with StokeonTrentLive reporting Craig and Zoe's life together.
Zoe and Craig met at Creations nightclub where the mum-of-three worked in Hanley, with the pair marrying in Blackpool back in 2010. Craig said: "She was ever such a nice girl, very pretty, very bubbly and happy. I was working on the bar, and she was working on the promotions team. We got together and we’ve been together for 26 years." A GoFundMe has since been set up for the funeral, with Craig saying he would sell everything he had to cover the £5,000 service.
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He added: "We believe her heart valves were used to save babies' lives. She would have liked that as she lost a baby at six months pregnant. They used part of her eye to help people with a disease that causes blindness." Leftover funds raised by the GoFundMe link are to be donated to the Critical Care Department at the Royal Stoke.