Glasgow mum who survived near-fatal brain bleed pens book to empower working-class women

Fast forward to today and Anne is celebrating two-years clear from the aneurysm that nearly killed her.

Anne with husband Garry

The freelance charity consultant isn’t wasting any of her precious time either, penning a book that aims to empower working-class women, hosting a chat show on local radio and holding motivational workshops.

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She said: “I’d just stood up from my dinner and got a pain behind my eye and quickly that escalated and I was unconscious by the time the ambulance took me out of my house.”

Anne, 43, remained in a coma for days with doctors unable to operate on her brain due to the amount of blood that was obstructing their vision. Nine days later a Spanish surgeon entered her brain via her groin and implanted a platinum coil.

She said: “It’s amazing how they fixed my brain. It was in the middle so doing open surgery wouldn’t have worked because they would have had to touch so many bits of my brain to get to it.

“By the time I realised what had happened to me, there wasn’t even a scar or anything.”

Her children, just two, nine and 13 at the time, witnessed their mum falling ill but for Anne, although she wishesthey hadn't, she believes it has equipped them to withstand the sometimes harsh realities of life.

She said: “Now they know. I mean really, really know that things can be so bad but the sun will always shine again.

"I was just lying all tubes and machines and my family were told the chances of me surviving were slim, and if I did I would have severe deficiencies.”

But after another two weeks in hospital, Anne was recovering at home with a shaved head and a scar on her skull from where it was opened to alleviate the bleeding.

She said. “I was very dizzy so I felt like a drunk woman. I couldn’t walk in a straight line. I couldn’t really do very much for myself. My husband had to do a lot for me.”

Instead of feeling victimised by what happened, Anne has transformed her experience into something positive, thanks in part to a lifelong interest in spirituality and self help.

She said: “I’ve been reading self-empowerment stuff for years - I call myself a hippy. I’ve been on a spiritual journey forever. For over 20 years I’ve really immersed myself in it.

Anne recovering in hospital

“As soon as I appreciated what had happened to me I remember having the thought process of, Anne, you’ll fix this in your mind.”

With that positive mindset, Anne was determined to look forward and to never feel sorry for herself.

She said: “I never said why me. I never let my thoughts get negative. It wasn’t up for discussion - I was getting better.“

As well as her physiotherapy, Anne undertook her own mental path to recovery, prescribing herself a regime of meditation, visualisation and positive affirmations.

She counts Glasgow-born motivational expert Jack Black and American spiritual leader Wayne Dyer as teachers.

With the help of an NHS brain clinic and a psychotherapist who were "amazing", she was able to deal with the trauma of what she had been through, regaining confidence and lost chunks of knowledge.

Now, as well as filming new BBC Scotland current affairs comment programme with her husband, Anne's writing the book that she will self-publish so that it reaches every women it needs to.

She said: "What I'm hoping this book does is open up a whole world to people so they can delve deeper.

Anne's three children with husband Garry

"Pursuing a spiritual journey has become a middle-class pursuit and that's why I'm writing the book. It's not for the women who's juggling three kids, has a full time job who's not got a lot of spare money."

Anne, who grew up and lives in Govan, credits her strength to the determined women who came before her.

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She said: "I'm from a long line of strong Govan women. When I stand here as Anne, I stand as my mum who was the oldest in a family of 10 who had to leave school at 15 to go and get a job. Her life was good but she didn't achieve what she could have."

Anne's mum died of leukemia at only 48, leaving four children of which Anne was the youngest at 13.

She said: "I've just always been a very glass half full person. I've always felt what's the alternative? This has happened. These women [my grandmothers and my mum], they made it possible to do what I now do."

After giving a TEDx talk on resilience in 2017, Anne started a talk show, Ignite with Anne Hughes, on Sunny Govan radio and launched a series of affordable "empowering and inspiring" workshops, Ignite your Life, which she still runs.

She said: "I believe my purpose in life is to inspire and motivate women, especially working class women."