Your Stories

As I wander around Katmandu and all it’s madness before I start a trek to the Mansulu Region of the Himalayas, it’s hard to recall the day back in 2010 when GBS took my life away for a year.  I was living and teaching in Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok with...

Today, having returned from a brilliant week in Spain with my husband, daughter and two beautiful granddaughters I scurried about opening mail, ringing friends, washing, shopping visiting my neighbour and finally driving to ‘The Crown Hotel, where I am a member of the...

In January 2013 I felt a bit stiff, the result of the man-flu I was very obviously dying from. My ‘stiffness’ was down to Guillain-Barré syndrome although we didn’t know that at the time, and neither (it transpired) did the doctors on my first visit to hospital, as...

Four years ago, on 1 September 2011, I was admitted into the intensive care unit at a hospital in Florida, unable to walk or feel my legs, arms and face, I had no clue what was wrong with me and was totally terrified. At first the doctors thought I’d had a stroke but...

On the 26th April 2010 my life as I knew it changed forever. My whole life evolved around sport and I was heading to Africa to coach football and so I had to have the yellow fever vaccination. The next day I woke with breathing difficulties and weakness and as the day...

In November 2011 I gave birth to a beautiful boy. It was a C-section delivery but as a fit 31 year-old woman I recovered quickly and had a very active and fun maternity leave. I was also training for the Great North Run the following September. On 1st September 2012 I...

It’s 1:00 am in Rio on Sunday morning 18/9/16. I’m absolutely exhausted but buzzing with overwhelming joy. Apologies that this is a long post but I’m a bit emotional and it hasn’t really sunk in yet. Day 10. Last day of the competition. 17/9/2016. Main event. 50m...

I dreamed of this, as I lay paralysed in a hospital bed. The leather-skinned steering wheel, warm to the touch, playing through my palms as the yacht heeled, gathered on its haunches, settled in its groove and powered up into the shimmering, rolling dunes of chromium...

On 1 June 2015, at the age of 68, I was diagnosed with GBS. This followed a bout of food poisoning (campylobacter) a fortnight before. On 30 May I felt some weakness in my legs and by the morning of 1 June I had lost all use of arms, legs and hands. I was hospitalised...