On the 23rd, 24th & 25th of August I will be running 3 Marathons in 3 days to raise funds for Cory Taylor’s physio therapy.

LATEST UPDATE:

Cory has had his assessment with the private neuro physiotherapist which was really positive feedback for what he could achieve. As you can imagine this was amazing news to us all, literally life changing. The cost for 2 x 2.5hrs sessions per week plus transport costs to get there and back is going to be £700 per week. Everyone’s donations will help us to give Cory the best chance of regaining his strength and independence to move forward with his life to build a bright future for himself and his son. We can’t thank everyone enough for all the donations so far and for Jake there are just no words that justify how much we appreciate the time and effort you have put into this challenge, giving Cory this opportunity is something we will all be forever grateful for ❤️

Cory's story written by his mom, Sarah.

At the end of March 2023 Cory aged 23 at the time became unwell with a cough and headaches. Cory was normally fit and well and worked hard as a roofer to support his son (age 23 months at this time) who he is a lone parent to. The headaches progressively got worse with severe vomiting and the pupils of his eyes went out of control. He was seen at Heartlands A&E on the evening of 2nd April but was sent away with some antibiotics.

His condition rapidly got worse overnight and an ambulance took him to Queen Elizabeth Hospital early morning of 3rd April. Within hours of being there as his condition deteriorated even more he was placed into an induced coma and taken into critical care with suspected meningitis. Once he was stable enough for tests and scans they showed his brain had lots of inflammation but tests for meningitis were negative. Countless tests were done and sent off but his condition was a mystery to the medical team which meant they didn’t exactly know what to treat him with not knowing what had caused this to happen. Cory was in critical care for 6 weeks before being moved to a ward although still not conscious or particularly stable.

He then got pneumonia and sepsis and ended up back in critical care in a serious condition having dropped to just 6 & a half stone in weight and requiring a chest drain. He was in and out of a coma for 12 weeks, then when he did come round he couldn’t speak or move.

At week 13 Cory was transferred to Moseley Rehabilitation Hospital where he stayed for 6 months. He made huge progress there and could hold his head up, could eat & drink, speak and was steadily improving with movement in arms and started to get movement in legs. Whilst here he had tests which confirmed a diagnosis of critical illness myopathy which was why his progress was slow.

Unfortunately towards the end of 2023 Cory had some medical set backs with high calcium levels and then suffered a collapsed lung resulting in him spending 3 weeks back at Queen Elizabeth hospital which had a negative impact on his physical progress. Once back at rehabilitation he was given a leaving date 5th January 2024 as although he was progressing and there was still so much to work on with him funding could not be justified to keep him there but they agreed to referring him for outpatients neuro physio.

So after 9 months in hospital he came home and started outpatients neuro physio at Solihull Hospital. Slow steady progress has been made with 2-3 sessions per week at the start which has dropped to 1 session per week for the last couple of months and again we are now at a point where they are ready to discharge him. He still needs lots of help to gain strength in his core to be able to sit unaided, to build movement and strength in legs and to also continue to progress his general all over strength and movement to gain his independence back.

As a family we do our best whilst also working and looking after Corys now 3 year old, we hire a motomed bike, practice core exercises, edge sitting and soon to be standing frame practice which we do all of daily to the best of our ability but we are not neuro physiotherapists by any means. Cory needs at least 3-4 professional sessions per week and to make things more difficult we haven’t had access to a wheelchair accessible vehicle since he has been home and won’t do for a good few months yet.

It has been just over 14 months since Cory was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we still have no diagnosis, soon to have no professional neuro physiotherapy and no transport. He is 24 with his whole life ahead of him with his little boy and although his recovery has been amazing he still has so much more to overcome.