After a year of looking to find the right place for my needs, on the 12th of February 2018 I will be starting an extremely intensive physiotherapy regime, mainly based at Flex Health Hull. With the support of my work, they have reduced my hours to enable me to have 3 afternoon sessions totaling 5.5 hours per week with Flex Health and 2 hours a week with a personal trainer who will work closely with the neurological experts in Hull. All these sessions are on a one to one basis and are carried out by specially trained spinal and neurological physiotherapists. This will enable me to push my body to the maximum and see how far i can progress with walking. My health at the moment is the best it has been for a long time and I'm ready to give this opportunity my all and have put at least a year aside for this. Unfortunately due to me having a full time job and the strain on the specialist physiotherapists on the NHS, with the number of patients they have to attend to, the help i require will not be available to me on the NHS. For a years worth of physio and personal training at the current hours recommended the price comes to around £13500 for the year. To help with the cost of this throughout the year, I will be doing various fundraising events etc.

In 2006, a week after my 11th birthday I was diagnosed with an extensive spinal cord tumor. This was a huge shock for all my family and me. 7 weeks into chemo I became a full time wheelchair user. Prior to this I was a very active, sport person, playing football, cricket, squash, tennis etc. The next 10 years was written off for me,, appointments, treatment, travelling, numerous unwanted lengthy stays in hospital. After 14 months of chemo due to complications it had to be stopped. A month later I had to undergo 2 lengthy 13 hour surgeries within 2 weeks of eachother to de-bulk the tumor after it had hemorrhaged. This was extremely high risk and left me with a lot of nerve damage from the hips down. Because of this then came the numerous orthopedic procedures to correct my hips, hamstrings and feet. I also had spinal rods inserted age 13 due to my spine curving. Due to me still growing, these had to be surgically extended every 6 months for 3 years until permanent ones could be inserted. These then had to be removed 2 years later due to a huge spinal infection which occurred twice, caused by the rods. I have since had to have my spine fused due to the rods being removed. During all this I had always had physiotherapy whether I wanted it or not or felt well enough. It was always tough but I put myself through it.