Chris Birch felt something snap in his neck as he did cartwheels down a grassy slope.
He was a rugby player, a drinker and weighed around 120 kilos. A momentary pressure damaged a carotid artery, cut off the blood flow to his brain and triggered a stroke. At first, he thought he had only hit his head. He was diagnosed with glandular fever, until memory lapses, slurred speech and numbness in his hands and arms led him to pay to see a private neurologist. His body was left with paralysis on the left side, visible in one eyelid, and ever since then he has taken medication daily.
A year later, he came out and said that the stroke had changed his sexuality. He left the bank job he could no longer stand and moved to Ystrad Mynach, in Wales. Today, according to VICE, he teaches hairdressing, runs a cleaning business and lives with his boyfriend Jack and their four dogs, the animals he used to dislike.
That’s his version. His partner believes he was always gay and that the accident only helped him realize it.