Stroke: it’s personal for Mal

And the 55-year-old from central NSW is tackling it head on, releasing a country album to raise funds for the Stroke Foundation.

Mal wanted to do something to give back to the foundation after he survived seven strokes.

“Stroke is the cruellest thing ever,” he said.

Mal had his first two strokes on the same day in 2008. They left him paralysed and a patient in the high-dependancy unit at Maitland Hospital for seven months.

“I was sent home to Dubbo to die, but I wasn’t prepared to die,” he said.

Six weeks after checking into Dubbo’s Lourdes Hospital, he walked out by himself, helped only by a cane. “The staff never let me give up.”

Mal said he would be dead if it wasn’t for the Stroke Foundation.

“All the advances they provided for stroke treatment – I wouldn’t be here without it.”

He released his album The Yobbo From Dubbo last September to coincide with Stroke Week.

Mal and his producer Kerry Hodge, from Hodge Studios in Bathurst, are covering the cost of producing the album between them so that 100 per cent of sales go to funding stroke research.

Mal has already raised more than $1000.

“If you buy it and don’t like it, all you’ve done is donated $15 to the Stroke Foundation and got yourself a good drink coaster!”

The album includes hits like I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore and the title track The Yobbo From Dubbo, a take on Merle Haggard’s hit Okie from Muskogee. Already it has gone global, with songs even being played on Irish radio.

Mal has been performing since he picked up some drumsticks and played in his late dad’s band, aged 11, but this is his first album.

In fact, he only started to sing recently. “Before I had my strokes I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but two years ago I was singing along to a CD and thought ‘I could listen to myself’.”

Next, he would like to record a Slim Dusty covers album, in tribute to his father.

proceeds go to the Stroke Foundation.

STROKE kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer.

It’s estimated that by the end of the year 56,000 strokes will have been recorded nationwide – or one every nine minutes.

To recognise the signs of stroke, think FAST:

F – Face: Has the person’s face dropped?

A – Arms: Can they lift both their arms?

S – Speech: Is their speech slurred? Can they understand you?

T – Time. Time is critical. If you notice any of these signs call triple-0 immediately.