We've Got Your Back!

Spinal Cord injury is a rare and complex life-changing neurological condition which can be the result of a range of traumatic and non-traumatic mechanisms. We will look at how it can occur and how the effects (including loss of motor and sensory function and disruption of bladder, bowel and sexual function), can impact on health, independence, relationships and beyond.

Matthew Kelly and his partner Sarah Baker are sharing their perspectives on how they have had to adjust to life after Matt's paralysing rugby injury. His spinal cord is damaged but not severed, allowing some nerve signals through, however his whole body is affected. He spent ten months in hospital rehabilitating, re-learning all daily living tasks before returning home.
Matt gives his personal experiences of rehabilitation and the difficulties of transitioning back into the community. They will share the information they were given, as well as the highs and lows of the rehabilitation journey.

Recently, accessibility for those spinally injured has improved hugely; with increasing varieties of adaptive equipment being developed, there really is no place “off limits”. As a specialist wound-care nurse with spinal injuries experience I was honoured to be part of a successful team which got a spinally-injured man, Martin Hibbert, to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 2022 in a fundraising mission. As a part of the Kili team I often use him as an example for newly injured patients to illustrate that the chair is not the limiting factor; my talk will explore life after spinal injury.