Stroke Association

For the Stroke Association, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to stroke survivors and their families, the stakes of communication are uniquely high and serve a life-altering purpose. Every year, tens of thousands of people rely on the charity for one-to-one support, scientific research, and national campaigning.

To manage a complex media landscape and ensure their message reaches the right ears, from government decision-makers to individual survivors, the Stroke Association partners with Vuelio. By utilising the platform as a central pillar of their communications strategy, the charity has moved beyond simple media monitoring toward a sophisticated, data-driven approach to public relations.

The challenge

The Stroke Association operates in a space where public perception often lags behind reality. While many recognise stroke as a medical emergency, fewer understand the long-term, catastrophic impact it has on every aspect of a survivor’s life.

‘Every day in the UK, over 240 people wake up to the catastrophic impact of a stroke,’ explains Katie Padfield, Interim AD Comms and Head of PR at the Stroke Association.

‘Mums, dads, grandparents, young people, and even children can be left unable to move, see, speak, or even swallow. It is a traumatic, life-changing event that robs survivors and their families of the life they knew. However, with strength, determination, and the right support, recovery is possible.’

As the leading charity in this sector, the Stroke Association provides lifelong support, funds vital scientific research into prevention and treatment, and campaigns for better care. But to sustain this work, they must overcome a significant awareness gap.

‘Many people think of stroke as “just” an urgent medical event, as shown in the FAST campaign,’ Padfield notes.

‘They are often unaware of the devastating long-term impact it has on survivors and their families, the gruelling journey to recovery they face, and the importance of receiving high-quality support. A significant increase in public awareness and engagement with stroke as a cause is essential to help us do more to tackle this devastation.’

The goal for the PR team was clear: they needed a way to amplify the voices of survivors and influence the UK’s health and care systems. Because the Stroke Association is the largest source of support outside of the NHS, they have a mandate to speak out on issues ranging from acute care to lifelong rehabilitation. To do this effectively, the team required a platform that could identify the right media targets and, crucially, prove the impact of their advocacy to internal stakeholders and donors.

Solution

To bridge the gap between their mission and public awareness, the Stroke Association integrated the Vuelio platform into the heart of their daily operations. For Padfield’s team, the platform serves two primary functions: a precision tool for media relations and a powerhouse for evaluation.

The cornerstone of their daily activity is the Media Database. In a crowded media market, generic pitching is rarely effective. The team uses the platform to ensure they are reaching the specific journalists and titles that resonate with their target audiences:

”Vuelio is an essential partner in our work to raise awareness of stroke as a condition and our purpose as a charity.’

‘Our team use the Media Database each and every day for media relations to ensure we are reaching key journalists and media titles,’ says Padfield.

Beyond initial outreach, the platform’s analytics function allows the team to move away from anecdotal evidence of success toward rigorous, data-led evaluation.

This is particularly vital when reporting back to the wider organisation. Communication teams can struggle to translate media hits into meaningful business insights, but the Stroke Association uses the platform to bridge this divide.

”Vuelio’s monthly and quarterly reports are extremely useful to share with internal stakeholders.’

‘They help the wider organisation see the impact of our work in the PR, Social, and Stories team; they are clear, concise, and demonstrate our results and the impact of our work effectively.’

Furthermore, the platform allows for a deep dive into specific organisational priorities. Rather than just looking at a steady stream of data, the team uses detailed individual campaign reports to shape their evaluations for key areas of focus. This enables a cycle of continuous improvement:

‘These reports help us to gain an understanding of what has been successful and learn how we can build on those results year on year,’ Padfield adds.

The relationship, however, extends beyond the software itself. In the fast-paced world of PR and comms, the support behind the technology is often as important as the tool. Padfield highlights the collaborative nature of the partnership:

”The Vuelio team are always responsive, incredibly supportive, and regularly offer new approaches to improve our ways of working to ensure maximum impact. We really value working alongside them and see them as a critical partner to our work.’

Results

The transition to a more data-centric approach via the platform has yielded impressive, measurable results across the Stroke Association’s flagship campaigns. By refining their targeting and monitoring through Vuelio, the team has achieved high levels of message penetration; a key metric in ensuring the public understands the long-term reality of stroke.

A standout example is the most recent Stroke Prevention Day. Using the platform to coordinate and track their efforts, the team delivered a staggering 802 pieces of coverage throughout January alone.

This activity resulted in a total reach of 130.4 million. Most significantly from a strategic standpoint, 100% of that coverage featured at least one key message, ensuring the charity’s core purpose was never lost in the noise.

The Christmas 2025 campaign told a similar story of precision and impact. The campaign delivered 72 pieces of high-quality, in-depth coverage in prestigious titles including The Daily Express, The Independent, and widespread regional ITV outlets.

The metrics from this campaign further illustrate the power of targeted media relations:

• Total Reach: 88.5 million.
• Key Message Penetration: 100%.
• Spokesperson Presence: 40% of all coverage featured an official Stroke Association spokesperson.
• Targeting Efficiency: 19% of coverage landed directly in pre-identified target media, and this specific segment generated 62% (54.5 million) of the total reach.

These figures demonstrate that by using the platform to identify and secure quality hits rather than just quantity, the PR, Social, and Stories team can drive outsized results.

The ability to prove that nearly two-thirds of their reach came from just one-fifth of their coverage, the high-value target media, is a powerful testament to the efficacy of their strategy.