DOUGLAS: ‘STROKE MADE ME A BETTER PERSON’
Legendary actor KIRK DOUGLAS is convinced the stroke he suffered 14 years= ago made him "a better person".
The Spartacus star fell ill in 1996 and had to re-learn how to talk aft= er the brain condition affected his ability to speak.
But the 93 year old insists his health battle had a positive outcome - = because it forced him to appreciate life and to make an extra effort to h= elp others.
In a posting on his Myspace.com page, Douglas writes: "It affected my s= peech. I couldn’t talk. Now talking is something we take for granted. We = think of something and we say it. We are not concerned with all the mecha= nisms that are involved in speaking, we don’t appreciate it. Like so many= things in life, we don’t appreciate what we have.
"My first reaction to my stroke was to say nothing. It was too much eff= ort to construct the words, the muscles in my tongue, my teeth, I couldn’= t coordinate them properly to say a word. It was easier just to say nothi= ng. But to say nothing is to withdraw from life. I was not ready for that= .. So, like a child I learned to speak again. It is still difficult and I = still have many moments when I want to give up, but I fight against it. T= he most important thing is that I find that my stroke has made me a bette= r person. I don’t take so many things for granted. I appreciate more and = that leads me to care more about others."
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