I'm running in the Hackney Half Marathon (13.3miles) 20th May 2018 to raise money to help Brookin who is in desperate need of treatment!!!

BROOKIN'S STORY

Lots of you have seen the YouTube video about Brookin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f8Ly3QEWbI) and many of you want to know more...

To cut a long and difficult story short, here is a list of SOME of his conditions:

Paralysis (from the chest down)

Allodynia

Fibromyalgia

Peripheral Neuropathy

Central nerve damage

Feet Ischemia

Pulmonary Embolisms

DVT's

Sepsis

Uro-sepsis

Pneumonia

Vitamin B12 deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency

And now for the long and more difficult story...

Following Brookin’s sudden collapse in March 2016, leaving him paralysed from the chest down, Brookin has spent over 18 months bed bound in torturous pain, unable to move in a 36” inch wide bed which feels like an open coffin. Due to failure by the NHS to investigate his spinal cord injury, he has been left to deteriorate with further conditions and left to rot.

Unbeknown to most people, he has been suffering in pain for 15 years from Fibromyalgia and Allodynia. Through his perseverance and strong, amazingly infectious character, he never allowed people to be aware of his pain. He battled through by going to the gym, playing football and tennis to keep up his strength, travelling the world determined not to let the pain get the better of him.

Following his paralysis, this strength and determination shone through. After decompression surgery on his spine at Ipswich Hospital, he was transferred to a specialist Spinal Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, whereby his rehabilitation began. Here, he could be seen attempting to regain his strength in the gym, whilst still managing to be courageous and fill the room with laughter. He was certain he would be able walk again, with the help of stem cell treatment and specialist rehabilitation, which is where our fundraising campaign began.

Unfortunately, since the initial campaign, Brookin’s condition has worsened. He had a nasty fall at Stoke Mandeville Hospital whilst showering unsupervised on his commode, cracking his head on the sink, after he was prescribed a cocktail of drugs. Since then, Brookin’s spinal injury has intensified and has left him bedbound for 18 months. Unable to move, unable to use his chair due to unimaginable pain which, in his own words, feels like his spinal cord is being ripped out. Intense pain in his testicles, burning sensations all over his body and having to be covered in ice. The NHS, deeming him as “too complex” for their hospitals, sent him to a nursing home. How on earth is a nursing home expected to deal with such complicated conditions if a specialist hospital is unable to?! Brookin has been passed around from pillar to post, being admitted into 11 different hospitals, being ignored and not getting the basic care that he needs. We’ve lost count of the amount of times his catheter bag has been left to fill up and drain back inside his body, poisoning him. He has obviously lost function of his bowels and requires manual evacuation. He has been left for days and weeks on numerous occasions without his bowels being emptied, resulting in life threatening conditions (i.e. Sepsis and Autonomic Dysreflexia). Lung infections, kidney infections, wound infections, this is just a small example of the absolute neglect he has endured whilst under the “care” of the NHS.

We now have a massive mission ahead of us to get him well enough and stabilised before flying him for pioneering stem cell treatment, followed by one-to-one intense rehabilitation. He will require specialist gym equipment and treatment for his Fibromyalgia and Allodynia. Our aim is to help rebuild his quality of life, enabling him to get to a place of independency and back into the community as a confident and happy soul.