Magnificent MUM

After her daughter suffered a horrific accident, Alison Jones set to work on healing her daughter’s scars

- Rhiane Kirkby

It’s the phone call every mother dreads. “Mummy, I’m in hospital – I’ve had an accident.” Only for Alison Jones, this news was made worse – 10,575 miles worse, in fact – as her daughter, Maddie, was in Australia.

“She wouldn’t let anyone else call me,” recalls Alison. “She knew I’d freak out – and I did. I was at a garden party at the time, and I was ready to go straight to the airport. Everyone tried to play it down, but I knew I needed to be there.”

Of course, getting to Sydney wasn’t as simple as buying a ticket. Alison, from Maidenhead, had horses, dogs, and a business to take care of. She also didn’t want to be in the air while Maddie was in the operating theatre. “I just wouldn’t have coped with not knowing what was going on,” she says.

In those “horrific 48 hours” before her flight, Alison discovered the extent of Maddie’s injuries and how she got them.

Maddie was working in a dressage yard when the horse she was leading got scared, ran past her and kicked her in the face. She was left with multiple fractures, a smashed right eye socket, and severely damaged sinuses. Fluid from her brain was also leaking into her eye socket.