I HAD TO LEARN TO WALK AGAIN

Unable to move her eyelids and told she’d be paralysed, one mum has defied the odds to take her first steps in time for Mother’s Day

completely conscious but in excruciating pain and unable to move any part of my body,” she said.

“Apart from pain medication, the doctors said with GBS there was almost nothing they could do.

“While I might recover in time, I had to prepare myself for the very real possibility I would never walk again.”

Relief

She spent three months in intensive care. Due to Covid restrictions she could only see her husband and children through a window.

Hayley, from Orton Brimbles, Cambs, said: “Carl had a transplant in March and we thought we might lose him then. Within just months our poor children were facing up to the same possibility with their mum. It was simply horrific. I felt so incredibly scared and alone and at points just wanted to end it all.”

But very slowly Hayley regained movement in her face and hands, so could start to communicate by writing simple words on a whiteboard.

After weeks of being in a vegetative state she could finally tell Carl, 52, and their 13-year-old twin girls Evie, and Ella, and son Christian, 14, to keep praying for her.

Making little progress, the hospital medics then got Hayley a referral to a state-of-the-art unit nearby called Askham Rehab, where she was transferred at the start of November. There physiotherapists managed to stabilise her pain for the first time in three months by adjusting her pain medication and regularly hoisting her into a hydrotherapy pool.

“Going into that hydro pool was simply incredible,” Hayley said.

“Being in a constant state of pain was all I knew. The sense of relief I felt was indescribable.

“I’d basically spent months making zero improvement and thought my life was over.

“Suddenly I felt that there was a way out of this horrific death sentence.”

With a team of physiotherapists using state-of-the art robotics and sensor-assisted technology, Hayley slowly started to regain movement in the rest of her body. “The dedication of the physios showed combined with the amazing machines they had there started to teach my body to move again,” said Hayley.

“By the new year, with my confidence building, I could see some light at the end of the tunnel, I might actually leave hospital and even walk.”

Along with more sessions in the hydrotherapy pool and time in the clinic’s sensory rooms and gardens, Hayley went from strength to strength – and three weeks ago took her first unaided steps.

“My family still couldn’t come to see me, so I Facetimed them with the amazing news, and a video of me walking without a frame or sticks.

“Our kids cried when they saw it and, needless to say, that made me start blubbing too!” During her stay at Askham, near Doddington, Cambs, Hayley started a journal so she could reflect on her journey and note her progress. Each day, she wrote down advice from her team to use as motivation.

“Their words helped me move forward and have stayed with me to this day,” she said.

“I’ve been supported in every step of my journey and will be forever grateful. I’ve got so many things on my bucket list now.

“One of the first things I want to do is jump out of a plane to raise funds for GBS, so others who get this horrific illness have a better prognosis.

“This Mother’s Day we’ll enjoy a roast dinner, play board games, and I might even enjoy a stroll around the garden with the kids.

“My family and I owe simply everything to those physios.”