As some of you know, just under two weeks ago, Carlene was rushed into Salford Royal Hospital by ambulance. She woke up as normal, the next thing I knew she was shouting and screaming out in agony for me to call 999 as she couldn't feel her legs.

She had emergency surgery the same day as one of the discs in her lower back suddenly prolapsed and was crushing the spinal cord nerves, causing partial paralysis from the hip down. We've since seen the scans which revealed the extent of the damage, you could hardly see where the nerves were, they were being completely crushed.

Carlene has made some improvement over the last two weeks, but it will be a long road to recovery. Day to day living for Carlene will now be very different, everyday tasks a lot harder and getting around so much more difficult than before. We will get through all of this together, but we will need to make adjustments to our day to day life. We need your help to make these adjustments as financially stress free as possible.

We have met with the occupational therapist who will be providing bed railings and toilet support frames, however to make Carlenes day to day living as smooth, safe and comfortable as possible there are additional items we need.

A supportive orthopaedic mattress

Shower & Bath equipment - such as a bath seat and grab rails to aid getting in and out of the bath and also whilst showering. - The occupational therapists suggestion for this was to wash at the sink until her mobility improves!

Alterations to staircase

Car equipment - to help with getting in and out of the car - the occupational therapist suggested sitting on a plastic bag?!

There will probably more things that we won't realise just yet until she's home.

Any help would be appreciated and take the strain off us at a hugely difficult time. Carlene is so strong and will get through this, but sometimes everyone needs a little bit of help.

Thanks in advance for any donations

Abs & Carlene