An 82-year-old stroke survivor who is blind in his left eye and can only type using one finger, has written a book to inspire others.

John Kingdon set out to complete 2,000 words a day on his computer, but can only use his middle finger on his right hand.

It was back in 2012 when he had his first stroke. He then had another in 2014, followed by a series of 'mini strokes', called transient ischemic attack (TIA).

"They can last 20 minutes or up to 24 hours," the retiree, of West Park Road, Maidstone, explained.

"They aren't very nice. However, the first few strokes did the damage, it wiped my memory completely.

"I couldn't speak, it was horrific. People were trying to teach me words, and I could remember some of them, but it was awful.

"When I first started reading again, it was like I was six years old."

Not only did John survive 10 strokes, but since 1999 he has suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), three hip operations, 12 minor heart attacks and two heart operations.

He commented: "It was like I was trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records with all the illnesses I have had!

"Life is so precious, you can't let it go just because you feel a bit down sometimes.

"I'm lucky to have got this far, I'm very lucky. I have had a brilliant life, I've helped a lot of people."

John was the founding member of The Harmony Variety Group Ltd, a charity in Maidstone teaching after-school lessons in performing arts to children and adults of all ages and abilities.

However, he has now passed on his director role after suffering from memory loss and brain damage due to the strokes.

He added: "When I came out of hospital, I didn't know I was married, or that I had been married four times. You come in the front door and you think 'where am I, who's that?'

"My wife of 38 years, Tracie, told me to go sit in my favourite chair in the front room.

"I asked her 'where's the front room? What's my favourite chair?' It hurts when you think about it, because you really don't know.

"We go to make a cup of tea in the kitchen, and I look round all the cupboards and don't recognise it.

"I'm lucky to have got this far, I'm very lucky..."

"I've been living here for all these years, it's just a terrible feeling."

In 2015, John made the decision to start writing, with the aim to try and increase his vocabulary and speech.

He said: "Eventually I decided that to get my life back and to try to get my words back, I had to write.

"I can't even remember now if I have ever read a book – I didn't know what punctuation was."

This year John has been able to publish his own book, an autobiography called 'The Clot That Almost Killed Me', after losing sight in his left eye from his most recent stroke.

In the book he openly discusses how strokes have affected his life, and aims to help others understand what is like to live with memory loss.

He said: "The clot fortunately didn't get to my brain, but it got stuck in my eye. I can actually see it, which inspired the name of my book.

"Now when I wake up in the mornings I can see the clot in my eye.

"This book is about determination and helping people who have experienced a similar thing to me," John added.

"But there's a lot in there that I hope some survivors, or even carers will pick up.

"For example, when talking face-to-face with a stroke survivor, when they stutter don't help them with the word, let them find it and get it out."

He says being able to create the memoir has allowed him to rediscover passions and find himself again.

He said: "As I was writing the words, I would look and think to myself 'what does that mean?', 'I don't know', I would have to look it up.

"The words just came back to me. I have a book where I would write down all words I began to remember – there are now thousands of them."

The book took around nine months to write, and due to the stroke affecting the strength of John's hands, he was determined to type his one working finger.

He says he would input up to 2,000 words a day individually with just his middle finger.

"I can pretty well do four hours, then I have a rest," he explained. "My other fingers are painful, bent and shaky.

"Everything is logged and listed on paper, with how many words are in each chapter. You have to regiment yourself a bit.

"But because of it, I now have a continuous strain on my hand."

In the end the book racked up a total of 68,000 words, and due to his health problems, John was unable to proof read it.

Using funds from his pension, he would send two chapters a week to a woman who edited and corrected his work.

Also being an avid artist, John painstakingly spent 15 hours drawing the artwork for the book – which he says symbolised the fight to find himself again.

He said: "I painted the cover which could have been professionally done, but I wanted to make the point that I could still do it even without one eye and bad hand."

Because John cannot hold his hand to achieve a straight line, he can create a piece by continuously drawing lots of dots. So far he has drawn David Cameron with son Ivan, and artist Tony Hart.

"My life has changed quite a lot and when you fight for something, it means you have already lost it," John added.

"The illnesses have taught me so much, you can learn from anything whether it is bad or good. If you set your mind to it, you will find a good thing in it somewhere."

A total of 25% of all of John's royalties are pledged to The Stroke Association, and his book, The Clot That Almost Killed Me, is out now.