Ellie Boakes was just 22 when she was told she would never walk again.

The aspiring police officer suffered a stroke after undergoing an operation to cure her epilepsy - a procedure she underwent to improve her chances of getting into the force.

Instead she was left paralysed down one side and given little expectation of ever re-gaining movement.

But medical experts didn’t bank on the depth of Ellie’s determination to defy the odds stacked against her - and now she’s hoping to help inspire others in a similar situation.

The now 24-year-old said: “I really wanted to become a police officer, you have to be able to drive for that and my epilepsy was getting in the way.

“The doctors said I could have surgery on my temporal lobe, they all said I’d be fine so I thought ‘go for it’.

“When I woke up I couldn’t feel my left side, I was told it was just the anaesthetic but when I woke up again I still couldn’t feel it, then they took me in for a scan.”

The former Bradbourne School pupil had suffered a stroke in the right side of her brain, causing her to lost control of her left arm and leg. Two months of rehab soon began.

She continued: “They told me I’d never walk again, I thought, you watch me walk out of this hospital.

"There's just not enough support for young stroke patients, they discharge you from hospital and you're pretty much on your own" - Ellie Boakes

“I learned to walk again in two months.”

The road to recovery is still ongoing. Only recently, Ellie managed to extend her fingers for the first time since the operation.

But in the days and months after her stroke, the Hildenborough resident said she had few places to turn to.

The former police cadet said: “I went to a stroke group in Tonbridge, but full of older people, I felt very out of place.

“I’ve started speaking to other young stroke survivors, some have told me they’ve thought of taking their own lives because of the effect it has had on them.

“It’s a national problem, there’s just not enough support for young stroke patients, they discharge you from hospital and you’re pretty much on your own.

“Both of my parents retired to look after me and I went private to receive the support I needed.”

Two months ago Ellie returned to her job as a receptionist at Reynolds Retreat in Borough Green.

She hopes to have weekly meetings for stroke survivors at Raphael’s Hospital in Coldharbour Lane, Hildenborough by the end of the summer.