Colleagues on the run for Michelle
AN entire office took part in the Great Manchester Run to support their colleague.
Michelle Mudhar, 33, was paralysed after suffering a spinal cord injury in a climbing accident last year.
Michelle, a member of Stockport Harriers Athletics Club, joined forces with her colleagues at Manchester-based engineering firm Atkins and formed a team, which they nicknamed ‘Three wheels and 44 legs’ to take on the 10k course.
The team has already raised more than £2,500 for the Aspire charity, which provides practical help to people who have been paralysed by spinal cord injury and has helped Michelle hang on to her independence.
Michelle said: “It’s a massive challenge for me, as not so long ago 10m felt like a life achievement, let alone 10k!
“For the past four months I’ve been training with my local athletics club and their wheelchair racing team, learning techniques about how to push a wheelchair long distance.
“I feel I can justify trying to raise money for Aspire, which has, and still is, helping me massively. All the training is important and worth fighting for, because it’s a sad fact that I have become one of the statistics. A different person is paralysed by a spinal cord injury every eight hours.”
After the climbing accident that damaged Michelle’s spine, she could no longer live in a shared rental property and could also not access a first floor flat she owned.
The only alternative was to be discharged from hospital into a nursing home and, at 32 in 2015, she wanted a different, more independent life.
Michelle got in touch with Aspire, which offered to rent her a beautiful bungalow, fully adapted for her wheelchair access, with wider doors, a wet room, and kitchen with lower level oven and sink.
To go back to her job, Michelle needed a lightweight wheelchair which she could lift by herself into the car, and it was Aspire’s welfare benefits advisor that contacted the Department of Work and Pensions to sort this out.
Michelle added: “Without Aspire I would probably be living in a nursing home without any means of transport and that’s a pretty depressing life when you’re young. I would be living a very different life without this charity and their good work must continue.”
To sponsor Michelle visit justgiving.com/IfYou-Fall.