Running for her life: 'PARALYSIS WASN'T GOING TO STOP ME!'

Losing the use of her legs just made Kristina from Kapiti even more determined to run marathons

- Kasia Jillings

For avid runner Kristina Cameron, there's no greater sense of satisfaction than crossing a marathon finish line. Each time, the 42km feat means all the more as she knows what it's like to be bed-bound and paralysed battling rare illness GuillainBarré syndrome.

"I was just about crying at the end of my first marathon in Queenstown in 2019," recalls the 38-year-old. "To think there was a time I couldn't even walk and now I've done this! It's a huge sense of achievement.

“I don’t think I would have the slightest interest in running if I hadn’t been paralysed. Something about losing the use of your legs makes you want to use them.”

It was 15 years ago when Kristina, then 23, woke up dizzy with tingling in her fingertips. She’d been out the night before, so initially assumed it was an odd hangover symptom.

“I got a friend to take me to the doctor and was diagnosed with vertigo. But the following day, the pins and needles were up to my elbows and I couldn’t move without holding on to something. By the third day, I couldn’t walk at all, and pins and needles were in my face and feet.”

Admitted to hospital, doctors were initially baffled.