By Ryan Maher

A stroke survivor has called on the Scottish Government to improve mental health care and employment opportunities for patients.

Ruth Hector, 33, from Stirling, suffered two strokes in 2016, which left her struggling with severe depression.

Ruth was discharged from hospital two weeks after her first stroke, where she received no further mental health support, until she suffered her second attack, four weeks later.

She said: "I should have had some help.

"After two weeks I was sent home because they thought that I was OK. That was when the mental health problems began.

"I didn't have a mental health nurse.

"I just felt like 'what's the point of anything, what's the point of being alive' - I wanted to kill myself."

For the last two years Ruth has also failed to find a job and urged for more assistance.

She added: "The Scottish Government could do more to give me and my type the same chance as everyone else.

"They might have had a stroke to disable them but it is only a small part of who they are."

A Scottish Government spokesperson responded: "We want recovering stroke patients to be given the best possible support and to live longer, healthier independent lives.

"Our Stroke Improvement Plan recognises this, reflecting best practice to focus rehabilitation, to help those people wishing to return to work."

Ruth's calls are one of a number that have been heard by University of Edinburgh researcher Gillian Mead.

In October, she launched the Edinburgh Life After Stroke group, the first of its kind in the UK to find new treatments for patients in the weeks and months after their stroke.

Gillian said: "There has been a lot of fantastic research, but the area that has been neglected is what happens after hospital discharge.

"Stroke survivors say they feel abandoned by society and that the support isn't there.

Around 140,000 people currently living in Scotland have suffered a stroke.

Ruth hopes that more emphasis is placed on after stroke treatment, to stop thousands more going through the trauma she faced.