The first meningitis symptom I got was a bad headache that wouldn’t go away, so I went to Charing Cross Hospital one summer evening in August 2011, worrying that I might have a brain tumour.
The doctor reassured me that it was just a normal headache and gave me medication. But the following day, it was even worse. I had a high temperature and started to get a stiff neck. This time, I went to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Arriving at the hospital is really the last memory I have for several weeks, though, as I fell into a coma.
Occasionally, I had the sensation of being in a dream and shadowy people trying to talk to me. But mainly it was darkness. I have since learned that the meningitis had very nearly killed me.
In mid-December 2011, I finally awoke to discover that I was paralysed from the neck down, as the illness had damaged my spinal cord. Until then, I had been a busy mum of two, happily married to my husband Osman, 47, and volunteering at a charity. Now I was facing the rest of my life in a powerchair, reliant on other people to help me get around, feed me and dress me.
When the doctors told me I’d never even lift a finger again, I had a choice: whether to make it, or to break it. And I decided to make it. If I’d broken and started blaming others for what had happened to me, then I would have lost myself completely. What kind of life would my children have if I was like that?
Instead, I had to be brave for them, for my husband and for myself. I felt that, having survived, I’d been given a second chance. I decided to embrace life with both hands, live it to the fullest and not to take anything for granted any more.
SETTING GOALS
Bu hikaye New UK dergisinin July 5, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye New UK dergisinin July 5, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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