A time to rest and reflect - Bishop Donal McKeown on retirement

We've a remarkable story for you now.

The story of Anna, who, when she was just 25, suffered a massive stroke caused by a tumour in her heart.

It initially left her locked in, unable to let the world around her know that she was even conscious.

In this excerpt from the BBC World Service programme Heart and Soul, Mike Wooldridge hears Anna's story, the confusion of not knowing where she was and what had happened to her, and the spiritual struggles as Anna, who'd been brought up as a Christian, became convinced that she must have done something terrible for God to punish her in this way.

I couldn't

move a muscle or make a sound, although I was screaming inside.

I tried to hold my head up and failed completely.

My neck appeared to have lost all its strength and the back of my head felt as if it had been filled with concrete.

I decided that I was semi-dead and being experimented on.

Not a scene from a horror film, the real-life story of Anna, who was newly married and living near Oxford when in 1994 something terrifying happened.

One nurse said...

She looks dead.

Where was God? And heaven? To the outside world, I was in a deep coma.

But some of my hearing and my mind was carrying on as normal.

My brain worked fine.

Where was my body?

At the age of just 25, Anna had suffered a massive stroke, which initially left her completely locked in, fully conscious and alert, but unable to move or let anyone know she was even awake.

Anna had had a Christian upbringing, but how could you hold onto your faith in a loving God when you're trapped in a body which no longer feels like your own.

To this day, Anna can barely speak, so she's told us her story using a special software system involving a reflective dot on her glasses.

That dot allows her to navigate her computer screen through slight head movements, and that's how she's typed out what she remembers, letter by painstaking letter.

For this programme, her story has been voiced by an actor.

I started to get a bad headache.

Within minutes, it was more than a bad headache.

I remember telling Des to phone for an ambulance.

Then no more for a while.

We've a remarkable story for you now.

The story of Anna, who, when she was just 25, suffered a massive stroke caused by a tumour in her heart.

It initially left her locked in, unable to let the world around her know that she was even conscious.

In this excerpt from the BBC World Service programme Heart and Soul, Mike Wooldridge hears Anna's story, the confusion of not knowing where she was and what had happened to her, and the spiritual struggles as Anna, who'd been brought up as a Christian, became convinced that she must have done something terrible for God to punish her in this way.

I couldn't

move a muscle or make a sound, although I was screaming inside.

I tried to hold my head up and failed completely.

My neck appeared to have lost all its strength and the back of my head felt as if it had been filled with concrete.

I decided that I was semi-dead and being experimented on.

Not a scene from a horror film, the real-life story of Anna, who was newly married and living near Oxford when in 1994 something terrifying happened.

One nurse said...

She looks dead.

Where was God? And heaven? To the outside world, I was in a deep coma.

But some of my hearing and my mind was carrying on as normal.

My brain worked fine.

Where was my body?

At the age of just 25, Anna had suffered a massive stroke, which initially left her completely locked in, fully conscious and alert, but unable to move or let anyone know she was even awake.

Anna had had a Christian upbringing, but how could you hold onto your faith in a loving God when you're trapped in a body which no longer feels like your own.

To this day, Anna can barely speak, so she's told us her story using a special software system involving a reflective dot on her glasses.

That dot allows her to navigate her computer screen through slight head movements, and that's how she's typed out what she remembers, letter by painstaking letter.

For this programme, her story has been voiced by an actor.

I started to get a bad headache.

Within minutes, it was more than a bad headache.

I remember telling Des to phone for an ambulance.

Then no more for a while.