Fundraising thank-you walk for woman who feared paralysis

Carol Shipley from Doncaster will take part in the Head Start race to raise money for Neurocare, a charity which funds equipment, research and supports the work of Sheffield hospitals’ neurological wards.

The 51-year-old’s problems began last September when she got up one morning with a stiff neck, which then developed over the next few weeks into an increasing range of painful and distressing symptoms.

These included back and shoulder pain, loss of feeling in her torso and left hand which would also go into spasms, a burning pain in her right leg and a loss of control over her left leg.

“My stomach started to blow up and at night I would also get fidgety legs as if there were thousands of spiders crawling about under my skin,” said Ms Shipley, from Epworth. “One day my left leg suddenly gave way in a car park and when I tried to stand up it would go in any direction but the one I wanted it to go.

“It all came out of nowhere and I seemed to be getting a new symptom every day. It was very frightening.

“When I was sent for an urgent MRI scan by my GP I thought I had a brain tumour. I thought I was dying.”

The scan revealed a prolapsed disc in her neck which had severely compressed her spinal cord.

She had emergency surgery at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital where the disc was replaced by a titanium cage.

Her condition improved rapidly after surgery but she has been left with nerve and motor problems in her left hand and leg, which can still give way.

The fundraising walk takes place at Rother Valley Country Park on April 17. Now in its seventh year, it has raised more than £70,000 for the charity.

For more information and to enter go to www.neurocare.org.uk or call 0114 267 6464.