Stroke Prevention Day this year focuses on helping people to check for atrial fibrillation, which lots of people live with and don’t even know it.

Atrial fibrillation is when your heart beats with an irregular rhythm. When this happens, your heart won’t empty all of the blood out of its chambers with every beat. Then, if your heart chambers aren’t empty, the leftover blood can form clots which travel from your heart into the brain, blocking off blood flow and causing a stroke.

Atrial fibrillation can happen to anyone at any age, but you’re more likely to get it the older you get. And because not everyone has obvious symptoms, it is likely there are hundreds of thousands of people who are living with atrial fibrillation, but don’t know it.

You can check yourself or your friends and family at home, with a simple pulse check. This Stroke Prevention Day you should check yourself and check your family for signs of atrial fibrillation.

If you think you might have atrial fibrillation, contact your GP practice and they will make a decision about who you should see next.

If you have had a stroke, you should have been checked for atrial fibrillation at some point.

Because atrial fibrillation is a cause of 1 in 5 strokes, it’s really important that you spread the message and encourage your family and friends to test for atrial fibrillation too.

Find out more at: stroke.org.uk/stroke-prevention-day