PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – For 44-year-old Brent James, the road to recovery found him at the foot of the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge.
“They told me that I wouldn’t walk again,” James said.
Back in January 2020 at the age of 41, James suffered a stroke. He was digging a hole at work when he started feeling dizzy and needed to take a break. He was losing his speech and passed out. James would wake up days later in the hospital.
“I have like a weakness in my arm and in my leg, you know what I am saying,” James said. “I can’t really use it 100%. But it is coming back every day.”
After a month-long stay in the hospital, six months in a wheelchair and another year in rehab, James was determined not to give up.
“You got to fight, man,” James said. “You cannot let nobody else decide your fate for you. That’s the God’s-honest truth. You have to get up every day in this body.”
And fight he has.
This past weekend, he and a group of supporters walked the nearly two miles over and back to the bridge that spans the Elizabeth River. It took him close to 45 minutes in the heat.
“Everybody was anticipating me to walk across and then get a ride,” James said. “-But I was like no. Let’s go. Let’s go. I am not tired. I felt like I could have walked that bridge again.”
But James wants to inspire other stroke survivors like him to be strong and be informed, because you never know if it could happen to you. His goal is to be disability-free and to how to inform others to the dangers of a stroke and how to avoid the silent killer.
“When you have a stroke, never give up,” James said. “You know what I am saying. When you have a heart attack, all of these things. I’m not just saying strokes – anything that you have, I want to be there and I want to help out.”