AT first glance the Reardons are your average family of mum and dad plus two children.

The difference is that father-of-two Paul Reardon is disabled and is cared for full-time by his wife Lisa.

Paul was working as a television cameraman with London Weekend Television when at the age of 23, completely out of the blue, he suffered a stroke, leaving him physically disabled.

Now 45, Paul lives in a bungalow in Gladelands Way, Broadstone, with Lisa and their two children Melissa, 11, and William, six.

Unlike many couples where one partner is severely disabled, Paul and Lisa got together after his stroke.

They met at Windsor and Maidenhead District Sports Association for the Disabled, a sports club where Lisa used to set up the targets for the air rifle range. They married in 1994.

Paul said: "I've been disabled for 22 years through a brain haemorrhage. There was no medical history of it.

"It was just after my 23 birthday. I had a headache about two weeks before. I was filming a bar mitzvah in Wilsden in a sports hall.

"We were just sitting down to eat when first my voice went and then I tried to stand up - big mistake. Some friends who I was with took me out into the sports hall and laid me on a couch and called an ambulance."

Paul spent the next six weeks in a coma and when he came out of it he was paralysed down the whole of the right side of his body.

His speech was affected by the stroke and he needs a wheelchair to move about.

Lisa said: "I do all things people would expect. Making his food and drinks, cutting up his food, just helping him to lead a normal life as part of a family.

"I push him around and take him places. I get him on and off sofas and help him do physiotherapy.

"I am a full-time carer but have home care for half-an-hour five times per week but just had to cancel two days a week because it's expensive and they put up the costs."

Lisa gets very little time to sit and relax - just an hour in the evenings at around 9pm when she snatches the rare opportunity to watch television.

The most difficult part of caring for someone is "the constant demand" on your time she added.

She explains: "Sometimes you feel no-one is there to help you because when you are in a family you normally get a bit of help from your partner but I feel everything is down to me.

"It's upsetting for Paul because he wants to do more to help. He does do the big weekly shop at Tesco.

"I'm always up doing something. I maybe get an hour in the evening. I get upset when there's nothing decent to watch at 9pm because that's the only time I get to watch television," she joked.

And what might seem like a minor mishap can be a nightmare for the Reardons.

A few weeks ago Lisa fell off a chair while trying to do DIY to save money, and ended up in hospital.

It meant friends and relatives had to rally round to care for Paul and the children.

"When it is down to one person to look after someone and it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong," she said.

It is also difficult for the family to have holidays because the costs of taking a disabled person on holiday are so high. When they do go away it is "just a change of location" for Lisa as she must continue to look after her husband.

Paul added: "It's not that bad because I've got help from my angel wife and I have also got a lot of support from family and friends. But not everyone is that lucky."