Stroke Association of Victoria support centres lack funding to operate beyond June 2023

Mr Porthouse's stroke was so severe that he was left unable to swallow, eat or drink, and before visiting the centre and joining the support group he had become seriously depressed.

"When you've had a stroke other people have no idea what you're going through," he says. "They can sit there and say, 'Yeah we know all about it' - well, they don't.

"It is a very, very difficult time in your life. Everything seems to be against you, and because you're virtually disabled you can't do things.

"A lot of people find it very depressing and go into their shells afterwards and don't really talk to anyone because they feel embarrassed."

Mr Porthouse came out of his shell when he made contact with the centre and its support group.

"I don't think I'd be here now if I didn't have so many people ... supporting me," he says.

"After about three weeks I felt like I had a new family because I had so many people I could talk to who had all had strokes."

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The support centre, which has two paid staff, organises social events including armchair yoga, cooking classes, twice-weekly walks around Lake Weerona, men's and ladies group meetings, and a monthly outing.

It also arranges speech therapy services.

But now the centre, and four others like it - in Shepparton, Ballarat, Morwell and Geelong - are under threat due to a lack of funding.

"The government has said they will close us down at the end of June and then review it in October," Mr Porthouse says.

The closure would mean a disastrous loss of staff, equipment and continuity, he argues.

"It just seems an absolutely bad decision to close it down, and when you say you're going to review it - how can you review something that's already dead?"

Politicians of different stripes have backed the Bendigo centre in the past, and its cause was recently taken up in parliament by upper house MP Gaelle Broad.

The member for Northern Victoria Region, who recently met with Bendigo support group members, described the stroke support centres as "vital", and called for their funding to be guaranteed, pointing to facilitators' role in helping ease the pressure on hospitals, coordinating social activities and providing support to find work.

Mr Porthouse says Bendigo stroke survivors will continue their fight.

"We've sent letters, I've been on telly and the radio," he says.

"I keep trying to put it out there and make as many people aware as possible."

For the Stroke Association of Victoria's 5000 members the closure of the centres would be "the biggest kick in the guts they've had since the stroke," he says.

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