Mollymook's Phil McDonald expands stroke awareness message

Phil, as part of his ambassadorship role with the Stroke Foundation, was invited to NSW Parliament where he got to talk about an issue he is greatly passionate about.

Phil and two stroke survivors got to visit NSW Parliament to represent the Stroke Foundation.

He was asked to speak about stroke awareness and the work he is doing.

"They wanted me from my own perspectives losing dad [Jim] to a stroke and work I have since through the world record which I did to raise awareness about strokes," he said.

His successful world record took place earlier this year and he has now broken two records.

Phil was not keen to talk about his world record - he wanted to talk about the great work the Stroke Foundation does and why awareness campaigns are important.

"They wanted me to speak about my second world record in front of all these politicians which I did not really want to do," he said.

He was urged, by the foundation, that the world records had given him a platform to speak on.

The gathering was timely - particularly for the Stroke Foundation.

"I found out when I was there that the visit coincided with the end of the Stroke Foundation's funding to campaign on awareness in regional areas," he said.

"So obviously the Stroke Foundation is looking to continue that funding."

Phil met the likes of Member for Maroubra Michael Daley and the Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland.

He plans to maintain contact with the MPs and push for things like funding and awareness.

Visiting parliament aside, Phil now wants to get the F.A.S.T acronym [Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties and Time] widely known and continue to push the stroke awareness campaign

"The stroke symptoms can be easily confused with someone suffering a heart attack and people need to know the difference," he said to explain why he wanted the F.A.S.T acronym widely known.

On his Facebook Phil McDonald - Team Fearless, the Mollymook resident regularly puts up health-related advice.

He did a series of posts on the importance of eating good food and recently his posts were about mindset which focuses on ways to reduce stress levels.

A good diet can help people avoid health issues like strokes.

"A lot of illnesses, especially strokes, can be traced back to our nutrition," he said.

"When you consider that blood pressure is one of the single biggest causes of strokes and then, as a result, we need to look at what factors cause blood pressure."

He said salt sugar obesity stress or SSOS as he likes to refer to it, were things we needed to watch closely when it came to reducing a person's risk of having a stroke.

At parliament, he asked the MPs to partner with him and the stroke foundation to be able to send out a SSOS message to all Australians without delay and to continue campaigns of stroke prevention through awareness programs,

"The first two [of SSOS] are nutrition - the last two are lifestyle factors," he said.

If people say to Phil - 'I don't have time to eat well or exercise' - he looks at them and tells them to make time.

"To say you don't have time to eat properly and get some exercise in is bullshit," he said.

Speaking of exercise, Phil is now in training for another world record attempt - so watch this space.