A Norfolk club that is looking to set itself up as a charity for stroke victims needs to raise money for its work after losing funding from the authorities and another stroke association.

The Norwich Stroke Survivors Club is aiming to provide help for people who have suffered a stroke and was started by people in a similar situation.

Alexandra Everington, a member of the club, said it needed to raise enough to cover the £130 weekly running costs and was considering exploring the possibility of becoming a charity.

The fund-raising is set to begin with a coffee morning at St Andrew's Hall in Thorpe St Andrew, between 10am and noon on October 8.

There will be a homemade cake stall, tombola, handmade cards, second-hand books and a gift stall and the entrance fee is £1, including coffee or tea and biscuits.

Mrs Everington said the charity had received funding from the local health authorities, but this had been cut, while the same had happened with cash received from the Stroke Association, which provides up-to-date information for stroke patients, their families and carers.

She said the organisation was hoping to spend some of the money on a language therapist to help patients improve their communication skills in the aftermath of a stroke.

Mrs Everington added that the club also did a lot of work in the community, such as at Norwich Community Hospital, where it provided information and a liaison officer for stroke patients.

'We are hoping to become a charity. The money is used to pay for door-to-door transport for people in wheelchairs and we are hoping to raise enough money to have a speech and language therapist back,' she added.

The club's finances also restrict the amount of time it can run and it has a six-month break during the summer.

Every year, an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke and the effects can be more difficult to overcome than having a heart attack.

A stroke is caused by a rapid loss of brain function due to a disturbance to the blood supply to the brain, which can be due to a lack of blood flow or a heamorrhage.

Risk factors for stroke include old age, high blood pressure, previous stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol, tobacco smoking and atrial fibrillation.