‘We should appreciate our lives...’

MILL-PLUNGE WOMAN’S MESSAGE OF HOPE

A YOUNG woman who was left fighting for her life after falling from a former mill has spoken out about her recovery.

Rachael Essaid, 21, suffered lifethreatening injuries after plunging from her fourth floor apartment at Holden

Mill, Bolton, a year ago.

She was placed into an induced coma and put on a life support machine.

Rachael is now urging anyone struggling with their mental health to reach out for help. “People said things about my appearance,” she said. “I felt I wasn’t good enough and that people didn’t like me for who I was. It felt as though people were judging and looking at me.”

Born in South Africa, Rachael moved to the UK aged nine and says she experienced racism while growing up in

Manchester. She later moved to Bolton, but suffered another setback when her father died when she was just 17. The former Sharples High School pupil has little memory of events leading up to the fall in the early hours of June 21. After months of treatment, she was finally allowed to leave hospital in late October. The five metal plates in her back and two screws in each hip are a reminder of her ordeal. “I am getting there but it is still early days,” she said. “It has made me realise how lucky I actually am. We should appreciate our lives. I would not want people to feel the way I felt. It is horrible.” Rachael’s mum, Kerry-Lee Moumen said: “There is always a better way. Do not let anyone put you down. Rachael is a beautiful girl and people were telling her she needs to get lip fillers and all sorts, but it is not worth it. Trying to please other people nearly led her to death.”