Paralysed mum’s brave struggle to reclaim her life

WHEN Aiysha Hancock came round after spending more than a month in a coma, she was unable to talk, walk, breathe or even move her eyelids.

She had been struck down – for the second time in her life – with a very rare life-threatening condition that attacks the nervous system and leaves people paralysed.

But the 20-year-old has vowed to make a full recovery so she can look after her baby daughter, who was born just eight months before the condition took hold.

“I didn’t think I would see my daughter again. I didn’t think I was going to make it through the night,” said Aiysha, reliving the horrendous ordeal which started in April.

“I had the same condition when I was three years old. I was in hospital for six months and it took me years to recover. I knew what was ahead of me – and it was terrifying.”

Aiysha, from Porthcawl, believes the condition was triggered by a simple cold.

“It started off with pins and needles in my legs. It was there the whole day and I couldn’t get rid of it,” she said.

“I thought it was a lack of circulation so I tried my best to keep active. I went to bed, still with pins and needles, and woke up at about 1am struggling to sit up. I tried walking to the toilet but my legs weren’t strong enough so I called my parents who came and left me on the landing.

“From there my legs went completely and I had to be carried to the car to be taken to hospital. Four hours later I was totally paralysed.”

Doctors confirmed Aiysha had Guillain-Barré syndrome which is thought to be caused by a problem with the immune system. It attacks the healthy nervous system and can damage the heart and lungs beyond repair.

It was a devastating hammer blow for the former Porthcawl Comprehensive pupil, who was of nursery school age when she was first hit with the condition.

“When I first had it they didn’t think they could do anything to help me,” she said.

“They didn’t really know much about the illness and they didn’t know what the right medication was. It was more serious when I was three as my body was weaker and would take longer to fight it off. It took me about two years to be able to walk again.”

Due to weakness in her facial muscles, Aiysha said she wasn’t able to smile properly until she was 17.

“I look back at pictures of myself growing up where I tried to smile but it just wasn’t there. It was so annoying. When someone smiles at you and you can’t smile back, it just looks rude,” she said.

“But I couldn’t keep telling people about my condition as I’d just be repeating myself all the time.” When the syndrome struck a second time earlier this year, Aiysha was put in an induced coma at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.

“I would experience really weird dreams [while in a coma],” she added.

“I’d struggle to tell the difference between what was real and what wasn’t. I thought one of my old close friends was dead when she wasn’t.”

Unlike her first experience of the illness, Aiysha was immediately given daily physiotherapy in a bid to get her limbs moving again.

She added: “When I first woke up from the coma, it was like I was trapped in someone else’s body. I could hear everything and see everything but I couldn’t respond.

“The physiotherapy was really important as without it my muscles would never come back. But it was horrible at first as the pins and needles were still there and I had literally no movement.”

Three months on, Aiysha is able to talk and is learning to walk short distances again.

“I still use crutches and need a wheelchair to go out and about,” she added.

“I have carers coming to my house over a six-week period, which really helps. I’m hoping to be strong enough soon so I can look after my daughter Aurora on my own again. She is my motivation for getting better. But I can’t push it too quickly.”