SARATOGA SPRINGS — Marylou Whitney encourages other stroke victims to get up and get therapy, despite it being “hell.”

“You want to live in bed. You want to give up on life,” she said Sunday of the depression that can occur with stroke victims. “Get up and get out of bed and you can do it.”

During Memorial Day weekend in 2006, the 82-year-old Whitney suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body. She canceled her annual Canfield Casino ball that year, but has slowly returned to the social scene.

Whitney, while nipping Sunday on a meringue at a dinner at the Oklahoma racing track for backstretch workers at the Saratoga Race Course, said most days she attends as many as three charity fund-raising events such as dinners and cocktail parties. She is involved with some 80 charities, including the Special Olympics.

Whitney attributed her recovery to her twice-daily therapy sessions six days a week. The therapy includes lifting weights and running a treadmill, which her husband John Hendrickson said she calls the “dreadmill.”

“You have to do things that hurt,” she said. “Some of the therapy you do until you cry.”

Because of the therapy, she usually arrives late to the track — often by the third or fourth race. However, it is paying off. She shook a reporter’s hand with a strong grip.

“I couldn’t do that two years ago,” she said.

“She couldn’t even move a pinky when it first happened,” said Hendrickson, her husband of 11 years.

“He loved that I couldn’t talk,” Whitney joked.

Seriously though, she said she couldn’t have gone through her recovery without her husband.

She also had to learn to write again.

“It’s very hard. You’re just scribbling,” she said.

Because of her therapy and busy schedule, Whitney will often say hello and shake hands, say a few words and then it is off to the next charity event.

Sometimes, she does not even eat at these dinners — preferring meals at her Cady Hill estate, where she spends the summer. She even seeks opportunities to exercise from kitchen preparation work, such as chopping vegetables or pounding veal for meals.

“I love to cook. I particularly like to eat fish. It’s good for the brain,” she said.

She is looking forward to catching some fish. After the Saratoga meet, she is going to go to the Adirondacks where she has a camp near Whitney Park.

“My father was a great fly fisherman,” she said.

This is the first year that they have scheduled dinners for the backstretch workers. They are held every Sunday and are organized by the Backstretch Employee Service Team. The cost is paid through various sponsors. Hendrickson came up with the idea.

Whitney said the couple wanted to show their appreciation for the workers.

“They work long hours and they’re not paid great,” she said.

“Thank you Marylou,” said Robert Clements, who waters down the horses, when asked what he thought of the event.

Although she may be Saratoga’s most famous face, Whitney admitted that she has never bet on the horses. She prefers to stay on the sidelines and cheer for her horses or those of her friends.

“That’s just as exciting. All of life is a bet but I don’t want to bet on horses,” she said.