91Èȱ¬

To find out more about Back Up Trust please go to:

Or write to: Back Up, Jessica House, Red Lion Square, 191 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 4LS

Or call: 020 8875 1805

I met my lovely friend Clair at school and we’ve been good friends ever since.

In April 1999, her life changed forever after a car accident in Namibia. She broke her back and her spine was severely damaged. At 25, Clair was told she would never walk again. It was a shock to all her friends as well as for Clair and her family.  I remember thinking, 'It can’t be Clair, it can’t be possible.' It felt like it was the end of everything.

But Clair’s determination and the support she received from a charity called Back Up have transformed her life. Back Up provides practical and psychological support to people who are paralysed as a result of spinal cord injury, and to their families. The sense of loss can be overwhelming so getting help at this time is crucial.

Clair went on one of Back Up’s residential courses where she learned to kayak and abseil. And later she was put in touch with other women like her when she became a parent.

I saw first hand the impact Back Up had on Clair. They helped my dear friend to re-capture her appetite for life. Back Up is the only charity in the UK which focuses on the psychological impact of becoming paralysed and which offers specific help to children and young people. The charity receives no government funding and needs funds to continue its vital work.

This is why I want to ask for your help in supporting Back Up. Your support will help people whose lives are devastated by paralysis to regain independence and confidence. Back Up could not change people’s lives without you.

Every eight hours someone in the UK is paralysed, as a result of a spinal cord injury. It can happen to anyone at any time and the impact is immediate and catastrophic for the individual and their families.

Back Up is the leading charity for everyone affected by spinal cord injury. Back Up gives people the support to live happy, active and fulfilling lives.  It is the only UK charity which focuses on the person, tackling both the psychological impact and practical skills needed to move on with life.  It also offers dedicated services for children and young people in the UK.

Paralysis affects every area of your life and requires huge adjustment for both you and your family. The impact varies from person to person but in all cases affects bowel, bladder and sexual function.  It not only means coming to terms with life in a wheelchair, but also leads to loss of sensation and control of your muscles. Paralysis can also cause isolation, anxiety, depression and even suicide. Many people struggle to adjust and move on with their life after becoming paralysed.

Since 1986, Back Up has helped thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds rebuild their confidence and independence following paralysis. All Back Up’s services are led by people with spinal cord injury. Back Up offers wheelchair skills training which helps people be more independent and mobile and matches individuals and family members with volunteer mentors who share similar experiences to help them cope and move on in life. Back Up’s residential courses help people realise they can achieve anything and give them the practical skills to make it happen. Back Up also helps people back to school or work.

Back Up knows that paralysis can be devastating, but believes that it shouldn’t prevent anyone from getting the most out of life.  However, the reality is stark. Lack of specialist care in the early days after an injury can have a disastrous lifelong impact. The suicide rate is many times higher than the national average and as few as 17% of people who are paralysed are in paid employment.

More can be done to help people like Joe and Clair, featured in the 91Èȱ¬ Lifeline Appeal, at this critical time with your support. Your donation will enable Back Up to transform the lives of people paralysed by spinal cord injury and help them discover a positive future

Thank you for your support.

For more information, go to their website , like on , follow on  or check out their .

Olivia Colman’s school friend Clair was injured in a terrible car accident while travelling in Africa. Her spinal cord was severed.

Clair said, ‘When I realised that I wouldn’t walk again it really felt at that time as if life was pretty much done really. Was I going to be able to work? Would I be able to do what I wanted to do? Would anybody be interested in a relationship with me because I was disabled? Would I be able to have children? It just really felt quite early on that life was pretty much finished at the age of 25 really.’

Back-Up helped her re-capture her appetite for life following an activity course in the Lake District.

Clair said, ‘I loved kayaking. I really had thought I’d never be able to do anything like this again. And I suddenly I find myself in a kayak in the middle of the Bassenthwaite Lake thinking wow! Look what I’m doing, you know I’m paralysed and I’m doing this, and I’m doing it by myself.’

That renewed feeling of confidence can feed into the rest of your life.

Clair said, ‘If I managed to kayak across a lake, camp in the middle of a field and abseil and all those crazy things that actually a curb in London was no longer as daunting as it used to be. What that course gave me was reminding me that I was still the same person that I still had the same mind, that I could still do the same things.’

Back Up carries on providing support to people at every stage of their lives.

Clair said, ‘One example in my life more recently of Back Up being really helpful was when I got pregnant with my daughter. I was able to phone Back Up and be put in touch with several people who have been mothers, as paraplegics, and had have gone through that and were able to give me advice from their perspective.’

Teenager Joe had dreams of becoming a rock star.

Joe said, ‘Being on stage in my band it was one of the best feelings ever, just to get loads of people looking at you and listening to you, your music. It was one of the biggest buzz I ever felt.’

Then 3 years ago, everything changed.

Joe said, ‘It was out of the blue. It started off with like a pain in my back. But it just felt like I’d pulled a muscle, so I didn’t really take any notice of it.’

Then Joe’s legs went numb and he was struggling to breathe. At the hospital, they found Joe had a blood clot on his spinal cord which had caused a stroke. He almost died. For five days, he kept going in and out of consciousness.

Joe said, ‘After I woke up, in hospital, I was scared and frightened. Didn’t know what was truly going on. Just knew that there was something really wrong. I couldn’t feel or move anything.’

The stroke had permanently paralysed Joe from the neck down.

Joe said, ‘I was in hospital for 15 months. I was fed up and really depressed. I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to lie there and there was not much point living.’

Joe was matched with a mentor with personal experience of the challenges he was facing. 

Joe said, ‘Matt, who was in a similar situation to me, really helped me a lot. The main advice that Matt gave me was to just keep strong and just keep fighting. He sort of came in just at the right point. He sort of saved me, to be honest.’

Joe’s mentor told him about the courses that Back Up run to help people regain their independence and confidence. On Joes’s Back Up activity course, he learned how to control a wheelchair using his chin. It transformed his life.

Joe said, ‘I’ve been using it every single day. One thing I really missed, that I never thought I was going to be able to do again, was to go out and see bands play but meeting Back Up and going on the activity course made me realise that I can still go out and watch gigs.'

Joe hopes to inspire others by becoming a wheelchair skills trainer himself and his ambitions don’t end there.

Joe said, ‘I hope to be able to get good grades in my A Levels so that I can go ahead on to university and live my life to the fullest that I can do.’

It’s Back Up’s unique combination of practical and psychological support that helps people with paralysis face the future.

Joe said, ‘It’s just made me have more of my life back. Without Back Up, like, I don’t think that I’d be here today.’