'I stopped smoking the day I learned I'd had a stroke at 41'Two days prior to her stroke, she was feeling very anxious and had started having twitches in her arm. ‌Two days prior to her stroke, Ciara was feeling very anxious and had started having twitches in her arm. Ciara says she stopped smoking that very same day and also started to eat a healthy, balanced diet: “It was such a scary time. The Stroke Association is expecting the number of people having a first or second stroke to increase to more than 151,000 a year by 2035. This includes high blood pressure, which is the cause of around half of all strokes.