Interesting article on the BBC: New 'at home' tech trialled to help stroke survivors regain movement - BBC News
Also covered in the Tech Now programme, 14 minutes in: Tech Now - Norway's Fjords: Can Tourism Go Green? - BBC iPlayer
Continuing the discussion from Research Participants Needed: Investigating whether Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TVNS) with rehabilitation therapy can improve arm function in patients with arm weakness after a stroke:
I wasn’t allowed that because I have a heart condition - I had one treatment before they joined the dots and think it would have worked well - but it helps to be able to keep the ticker going!
Very interesting reading, thank you for sharing.
Regards Sue
That’ll be a game changer for some if the trials are successful.
The trials were posted on the Stroke Association blog in 2024. Did anyone sign up for it? I have looked a bit into it and found some positive uses for cerebellar stroke symptoms.
It seems Jim @caer_luel has posted a link to the same BBC article on another thread and I responded to that suggesting some might want to join this trial as there seems to still be places available (at least according the article dated 14 February 2026 i.e. yesterday).
I wasn’t sure if we are allowed to post a link to that because it is an invitation to research trials which I understood according to the message moderator Anna @Anna_Moderator sent the other day we were not supposed to do and so I didn’t post the link.
However, as this has already posted on the SA blog as per Rupert’s message, then I will repeat some may wish to join the trial.
The article says there are 270 places and budget of ÂŁ2M but just over 200 participants so far - that suggests there are 70 places available and personally, if I would jump at the opportunity, or at least explore it before signing up.
Interesting. I hope this trial succeeds.
Aye, because if you were to purchase a medically graded tVNS device it would set you back about €3500 
Oh heck! That much? 
, wow!
Hi @ManjiB
Thank you for tagging me in this. The link I mentioned previously was about fundraising rather than research.
With regards to links to research studies, what we don’t allow is for people to specifically recruit people for study’s and research purposes on the Online Community. As long as you’re not recruiting people, you can post links to a research study if you think it would be helpful for our members to know about it.
For more information on research you can have a look at our research page on the website and if you have any questions you can contact our research team research@stroke.org.uk
Anna
There are less expensive ones that aren’t medically graded, they belong in the £500 range, but I am to understand that anything cheaper is most likely a gimmick.
Unless I have misunderstood, this is absolutely worth signing up for if you qualify since to fork out 3500 EUR for something that may or may not work would certainly be beyond my budget.
I wonder what is holding people back from signing up, or maybe the places can’t be filled as the criteria that has to be met must be tight so that the 3500 EUR investment is not wasted. Maybe it is the latter.
Thanks Anna. Much appreciated.
It may be the requirement to attend the appointments which may put a lot of people out of the criteria. I would like to give it a go but my symptoms are visual-spatial and the trials are for arm/hand signalling only, plus I wouldn’t be able to get to the appointments even if they offered it for my condition.
€3500 is a lot to fork out and the treatment is not a magic wand, indeed, not everyone benefits from it.
Hence - trial / research 
I volunteered for something a year or two ago and was put off because I needed letters and medical records from my doctor and the hospital I was in. I’d have managed the journey to Sheffield no problem but getting all the relevant information they wanted, no. It was partly due to the stroke, but what were the chances of getting copies of scans etc from the gp and hospital in a timely fashion.
Lorraine
I guess it can be difficult if they require information that is not readily available.
I have an invite waiting for me to take part in some health research, can’t remember what and have thought about signing up but not got round to it.
Many years ago, I took part in a dental research project being run by someone at Guy’s Hospital in London. I signed up when I working in my first proper job as they came to the employer which had many employees and asked for volunteers. I was one of a few (don’t know how many who signed up) and a few years later discovered one of my mentors had also signed up.
Why am I waffling on about this? Well there is more. The project continued as it was a long term on dental healthcare. Quite a few years later, I received an appointment to got to Guys and the research scientist told me then that this might be my last appointment as the number of volunteers had dwindled and it wouldn’t make sense to carry on 
Now there is more to this silly story. On a separate occasion, I asked my dentist for a second opinion after he said I needed some treatment which I did not agree with. So he charged my £25 for the privilege of him sending a referral (to Guy’s hospital of all places). And then on the day I went for the second opinion appointment, I was told buy the Guy’s consultant that I didn’t need the treatment my silly dentist had tried to get me to have and my teeth were perfectly fine. So I was well pleased - £25 (a lot of money in those days) well spent.
And so now, for the real reason why I am rambling on. Name dropping On my way home, I “bumped” into Roger Taylor (drummer with Queen, not to be confused with Roger Taylor the left handed British tennis player from the 60s and 70s). I didn’t actually run to him and ask for his autograph, but did let him know I had identified him as a celeb and am “too cool” to ask for an autograph. Not sure if he might have been disappointed 
I remember he looked smaller in real life than he does in videos, though he is not actually that small.
Aren’t you glad you read this rather silly story to the end?
Tee hee!
Oh, now you’ve reminded me of my Roger Taylor story. Many years ago I was a regular at a pub in Farnham, spending many a disreputable night there with my friends. One wet November evening a man walked in the door wearing sunglasses (at night, in November) with an attractive woman. When he took off his shades we saw that it was Roger Taylor. We were far too cool (ahem!) to want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that we’d recognised him, so we all pointedly tried to ignore him as he went to buy drinks… and then sat down at the table next to us. At that point it was getting quite difficult to ignore him, but we kept trying until another friend came in and sat down a couple of feet from RT. He looked at us being idiots, looked at RT, looked back at us and said “is this guy famous or something?”
We collapsed laughing, while RT and his friend finished their drinks and left.
Very funny
Your friend is very witty!
Roger Taylor sure does get about a bit. This is my friend’s story not mine and it isn’t about Roger Taylor. My friend was at the Hay-on-Wye book fair many moons ago and spotted Dave Gilmore next to him as they both entered a book talk. My friend was so surprised to see him that he gave him a demented, held stare that Dave clocked immediately. So, they took their seats and as it happened, both were sitting at the front row, a few seats down from each other. Once seated, my friend did a surreptitious side look at Dave only to have his eyes met with Dave Gilmore doing the same thing to him. Dave must have thought my friend a proper loony.
On a dental note, regarding @ManjiB’s post. My dentist parks his Porsche outside the practice so that we all know where our money is going.