A writer had to learn how to walk again after suffering a stroke aged just 38.

Ricky Brown, from Stockbridge, Edinburgh, was diagnosed with high blood pressure while working as a financial lawyer.

The 43-year-old never realised his condition could increase the risk of coronary heart disease before he had a stroke two days after his employment contract had finished.

Ricky told how he was forced to use a walking stick to get back on his feet following the ordeal.

He said: "People around me assumed that I was having a heart attack because of my family history.

"My dad had had bypass surgery some years earlier. But it became apparent I'd had a serious stroke and I was heavily sedated for several days.

"After several weeks in hospital I returned home with a sturdy walking stick and a walking frame I had to learn to walk again.

"But with rehabilitation and hard work on my part at physical therapy, I recovered and to look at me you wouldn't believe I'd had a stroke."

Soon after, Ricky and his partner Beth, now his wife, relocated to Edinburgh from New York.

The father-of-two is now pursuing a career as an award-winning creative writer, portraying his experience of having a stroke.

He added: "The life I'm living now is the new normal for me. I have coping strategies.

"For example, if my wife's going to work and I need to take care of three things, I can do each thing if I tackle it alone.

"We have an organiser in the hall and the keys and phones are always in there, in the same place."

Ricky continued: "Physically there is a degree of weakness in my left hand side and I'm left-handed but I don't really notice it although my handwriting is worse! And I do suffer from fatigue sometimes.

"My doctor is keeping an eye on me as I have two aneurysms in my brain.

"But to be honest I feel really lucky. I've had incredible support from my wife, which is easy to say, but it's true.

"And I've now got opportunities to do things, such as creative writing, which I wouldn't have had before."

New figures show 92% of people in Scotland living with coronary heart disease have at least one other long-term condition. Nearly six in ten have at least three (57%).

Ricky said: "These statistics reflect my personal and family experience, and serve as a reminder to anyone living with a heart condition to take an active role in monitoring their health.

"It was the remarkable science of the scans done in the aftermath of my stroke, for example, that revealed the presence of two brain aneurysms I'm managing with the help of my doctors.

"Together with the national health service that we're fortunate enough to have in Scotland, this gives me reason to be positive about the future."

Chief executive at the British Heart Foundation, Simon Gillespie, said: "Over the years we've made huge progress in improving survival rates for single conditions like heart attacks with BHF-funded research leading the way. However, today's figures point towards an emerging and very urgent challenge.

"For example, increasing numbers of people are surviving heart attacks, but are going on to suffer strokes or live with additional conditions like vascular dementia, which limit their quality of life, increase their risk of dying and will place increasing pressure on the health and care system across the UK.

"We can only reverse this trend by funding more research into all conditions of the heart and circulatory system, with a focus on how they can be treated together."