Ballinlough Barbers Shop

Donald McAvoy was 38 years old and owned his own gym when he began experiencing neck pain that wouldn’t go away.

He dealt with it as he always had: cracking his neck with his hands, something he had done for years without thinking twice. But this time, the pain didn’t go away. Months later, while eating in front of the television as he watched a soccer game, he choked. Within seconds, he lost his vision and control of his body. At the hospital, doctors explained what had happened: a vertebral artery dissection, a tear in one of the blood vessels that carry blood to the brain, had caused him to suffer multiple strokes.

Since December 2023, he has lived with double vision, balance problems, fatigue, and numbness on his right side. Even so, in March 2026, he married Rachel, and the next day the American Heart Association named him Survivor of the Year. Today, he shares his story so that no one else ignores neck pain that won’t go away.

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