In May 2019, whilst out riding a horse on a simple happy hack I got thrown off with devastating consequences that were going to change me for the rest of my life. As I lay there in the mud unable to move anything apart from my head thinking I was dying, as I was unable to breathe properly, it felt like my chest was being crushed, saying tell my daughter  Hatty how much I love her. After what seemed like hours the air ambulance finally arrived, they couldn’t find me due to the location. The  lovely doctor assured me I wasn’t going to die on her watch. 

Over the next 24 hours although unclear I got the gist of it I wasn’t completely paralysed, I had a spinal cord compression and umpteen fractures in my cervical and thoracic spine. I had to relearn to walk, my upper body however has not fully recovered and unlikely to. I had to become friends with Colin the collar for the next 4 months I hated it, they had to stick my glasses on with tape because Colin kept pushing them down my nose I couldn’t move my hands to push them back on. 

The reality hit home when I arrived at the spinal unit a few weeks later, I was informed  basically my hands would never function properly again, no grip, sensation, feeling, temperature, unable to do normal everyday things, and all the complex complications that come with this catastrophic injury, constant nerve pain, muscle tone, no body temperature control I don’t know if it’s hot or cold, the list goes on, were here to stay. I was devastated to say the least. I’m in rehab everyday for the rest of my life otherwise everything seizes up no matter how much I do daily it’s like ground hog day the next day is still the same. 

When I got home from the spinal unit I didn’t know which way to turn scared of the future, scared of my own shadow, I reached out to Back Up they put me in touch with a mentor who like me had had a horse riding accident and is a walker, what an absolute angel she is our sessions were a game changer for me,  and slowly slowly I started to recover, mentally too. 

8th August 2021 I will be climbing Scafell it’s a personal challenge but I  would like to raise money for Back Up along the way for all they do for Spinal Injured folk, people like me. 

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