Community stories

Prof Sheila Martins has poured heart and soul into giving stroke patients a second chance, but arguably her greatest legacy is the large number of young doctors who believe in themselves because she did, and who are now rewriting the story of stroke. This is an edited excerpt from a conversation that was recorded for the Angels Stroke Heroes Podcast in Barcelona in October 2025.

"The most important part of becoming an Angels region is not the final recognition, but the process of shared growth.” This is the lesson from Argentina’s first Angels region.

It’s mindset, not location that counts. That is the lesson from Madeira, the first island in Europe to become an Angels Region.

The health and well-being of children was the focus of a conference held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 22 April – and FAST Heroes was on the agenda.

Stroke was in the news in Kazakhstan during April as a history-making Train the Trainer event – the first in Central Asia – was followed just days later by a ceremony to celebrate the country’s first Angels Regions.

The start of a new chapter in ICH care is the moment for all of us — every neurologist, every emergency physician, every nurse, every stroke team — to act, writes Jan van der Merwe in his introduction to the latest issue of the Angels Journey.