A KIND-HEARTED cafe boss raised hundreds of pounds to buy a stroke survivor a monitoring machine that could save her life.

Pontypool mum Lorraine Jones was unable to speak and left paralysed in one arm after suffering the debilitating stroke in June this year.

Months earlier, the 51-year-old also had to have a valve fitted to her heart because of an aneurism.

Coffee shop owner Louise Shepphard became aware of her plight after delivering meals on wheels to her door.

The generous cafe boss needed just three weeks to collect the £770 needed to buy Ms Jones a heart monitoring machine which could help prevent a future stroke or heart attack.

Ms Jones said she could not get the hand-held device on the NHS.

Ms Shepphard, of the Get Stuffed Cafe in Osborne Road, said: “We did a raffle and we had a box in the shop.

“I had seen on Facebook she was in hospital all the time.

“She’s not had a very good life. More people should do things like that for people.”

Ms Jones thanked customers at the shop who donated funds for the lifesaving machine.

She has recovered the use of her arm and can now talk but still has a speech impairment.

Ms Jones, of Crumlin Road, Pontypool, said: “The machine tells me straight away what my blood is for example if it’s two or five.

“It had gone lower to 1.52 when I had the stroke. But if I had had it at the scene it wouldn’t have happened.

“I want to thank everyone who donated. There is a lot of people I don’t know in the town who put money into this. We don’t want to forget them.”

Her husband Merfyn Jones, 55, added: “She’s getting better. She has been much happier in herself.

“It’s a life-saving machine for her. It’s all down to the blood count.

“It’s small enough to put in the hand.

“I would like to thank all the people involved especially friends on Facebook.

“Facebook did all this and of course Louise who started it.”