A CONISTON-BASED film-maker is appealing for fund-ing to turn the story of her mother’s stroke into a finished film.

Karen Guthrie spent two- and-a-half years shooting ‘The Closer We Get’ – a film showing how the aftermath of the stroke helped bring her family together.

Using crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, Karen has until Saturday to raise a further £7,500 of the £15,000 needed to bring the comp-elling story to fruition.

Karen, originally from West Scotland, started making a film about her family in 2008, when her mother was in perfect health.

Two weeks after being interviewed for the film, Ann suffered a devastating stroke which Karen said ‘turned all our lives upside down’.

“There was a dreadful period of about six months where she was in hospital, and then eventually she came back home and I started to go up to Scotland every other weekend to look after her.

“Although physically she remained almost quadriplegic, her mental faculties remained pretty much intact.”

In 2011, when Karen asked her mother if she remembered the film they were going to make, Ann replied ‘Yes I do, let’s get on with it’.

“The film is about getting to know your parents again later in life,” explained Karen. “Before this happened, I was a typical career woman and not focused on looking after my parents at all.

“I felt like I was changing a lot, so it also became a diary of that change.”

When Ann died last summer, Karen said the two of them were closer than they had ever been.

“I would have loved it if she’d survived to see the film finished.

“But I knew it was helping her because she knew she was going to leave behind this legacy and she trusted me with it.”

Now in its editing stage, the film is being backed by The Stroke Association.

Regional head of oper-ations Chris Larkin said: “Karen’s film shows the true impact a stroke can have on a family unit, told in a touching and inspiring way.”

For further information about The Closer We Get, visit Indiegogo:www.indiego go.com/projects/the-closer-we-get.