Oct 12, 2026 · 1 hr 17 min · 11 segments
Clodagh Dunlop is a PSNI detective who had a stroke at just 35, leaving her with locked-in syndrome. Her only way to communicate was by blinking one eye. Today, she is back working full-time in a job…
Caroline O'NeillHost
Thank you for coming, for being here, for repa- replying to me on social media, and I don't know if you know that is the story why you're here.
[laughs] I feel I'm just one of quite a number of people in Northern Ireland to have strokes, but I understand that not everyone has locked-in syndrome.
No, and whenever you were telling me about stroke, I didn't know that statistic was so high.
Most people associate stroke with perhaps older people, but tell me about that stat you told me about.
So every three hours in Northern Ireland, someone has a stroke, and a quarter of all those strokes are in younger adults of working age.
Really shocking, and it shocked me even though I was telling you my background is I, I was an occupational therapist, and one of my rotations was on the stroke ward in the Royal.
I was only in my early 20s when I was doing that, so I don't remember the younger face, uh, being on that stroke ward, but it, that statistic does not lie, and you do not lie.
I wanna know about what your work is now because I want people to see, yes, you may have had a stroke, but tell me what your work is, what you work at.
at.Um, I work full-time as a detective in the PSNI, um, and I serve my community and very much enjoy doing that.
And prosecute people who commit crimes, and support victims and witnesses, and when I can, support the suspects too through the criminal justice process.
Thank you for coming, for being here, for repa- replying to me on social media, and I don't know if you know that is the story why you're here.
[laughs] I feel I'm just one of quite a number of people in Northern Ireland to have strokes, but I understand that not everyone has locked-in syndrome.
No, and whenever you were telling me about stroke, I didn't know that statistic was so high.
Most people associate stroke with perhaps older people, but tell me about that stat you told me about.
So every three hours in Northern Ireland, someone has a stroke, and a quarter of all those strokes are in younger adults of working age.
Really shocking, and it shocked me even though I was telling you my background is I, I was an occupational therapist, and one of my rotations was on the stroke ward in the Royal.
I was only in my early 20s when I was doing that, so I don't remember the younger face, uh, being on that stroke ward, but it, that statistic does not lie, and you do not lie.
I wanna know about what your work is now because I want people to see, yes, you may have had a stroke, but tell me what your work is, what you work at.
at.Um, I work full-time as a detective in the PSNI, um, and I serve my community and very much enjoy doing that.
And prosecute people who commit crimes, and support victims and witnesses, and when I can, support the suspects too through the criminal justice process.
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