STROKE isn't just a disease of age and each week in Britain it claims 200 victims in the prime of their lives, writes Chris Holme.

However, treatment remains patchy and aftercare for sufferers is often sparse, the European Stroke Conference in Edinburgh was told yesterday.

''This is a problem which has largely been ignored,'' said Mr Donal O'Kelly, director of Different Strokes, a self-help charity run by stroke survivors. ''Many do not receive full support from the health services because stroke is perceived as a problem of the elderly. Young people need much more than an afternoon at a day centre playing bingo. Strokes can happen at any age. On our books we have a 10-day old baby, toddlers, young children, teenagers, and adults.''

Scotland has the highest stroke rate in Europe after Portugal.

Ms Jan Buncle, director of Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, said: ''Each year 15,000 people in Scotland will have a stroke and 8000 will die. Stroke is the largest cause of disability in our community and we have got to get better stroke care for everybody.''

She said there was a pressing need for hospital aftercare units to improve survival rates, reduce disability, and cut the risk of a subsequent attack.

Smoking, high blood pressure, and diet are all risk factors. Promising treatments include clot busting agents to dissolve obstructions in blood supply to the brain - the cause of most strokes - and new drugs to prevent the spread of nerve cell damage.

Different Strokes has a group in Glasgow and next month hopes to set one up in Edinburgh.

Mr O'Kelly felt younger people needed particular support in developing new skills, retraining, and counselling to regain what they could of their former quality of life.

''Suddenly you are no longer in control of your life or body and you have got to come to terms with that,'' he said.