Support Fiona's recovery from a major Spinal Cord Injury

We're a collection of Fiona's family, friends and work colleagues and we've started this fund to help her meet the enormous costs she's now facing as a result of her life-changing injury.

The best person to explain what happened is Fiona herself, in her own words......

Hi, my name is Fiona. I’m 54 and I love being alive. I love nature, walking outside, dancing, yoga, Qigong, good food, and an occasional nice glass of red wine.

In my early 20s I left an abusive marriage and single-parented my four daughters. I finally found the love of my life 4 years ago. Life was amazing. We moved to West Cork, where we loved our long walks with our dogs, and having nature on our doorstep. In October of last year we had our dream wedding - our happily ever after.

On January 8th '24 (just 3 months after our wedding!) I fainted and fell. When I woke I couldn’t feel or move a thing - the fall had severely damaged my spinal cord at my C5/C6 vertebrae.

This required an 8-hour lifesaving emergency operation. Two and a half weeks in Intensive Care was followed by two and a half months in Cork University Hospital, before a transfer to the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) where I’m currently having intensive rehabilitation.

I have very limited use of my hands which means I can’t wash, brush my hair or my teeth, use a phone, or even sign my name - I’m totally dependent for everything. I’m paralysed from my chest down so I currently require the help of two others for everything such as being moved in the bed, washing, showering, going to the bathroom, assistance with eating, and all aspects of daily life that, before, I took for granted.

However, there is hope. As it was an 'incomplete' injury recovery is uncertain, but there’s always potential. My life has been completely changed. Going from a healthy, fit independent woman to a dependant, chronically-injured woman.

We now need to adapt our house, get a car that’ll take me in my wheelchair, and try to get to a specialised ‘Beyond Therapy’ intensive rehabilitation centre in Atlanta, USA. All of these come at a huge cost which is totally unexpected and not budgeted for…terrifying ....especially when most of this is needed immediately so that I've a home to go to and a way of getting there when I'm discharged from the NRH in mid-July.

While living in West Cork, I had a perfect work/life balance, working part-time and also setting up my dream wellness business. My wonderful work colleagues at Skibbereen Family Resource Centre wanted to support me by setting up this GoFundMe page, and my family - led by my brother, Anthony - have also joined in. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful, supportive family and friends.

At the moment this financial burden seems impossible. I would be so grateful for any and all support you might be able to give, so that this can be overcome.

I love being alive and, while my future might now be different, I feel I have so much more to give.

We've all told Fiona to 'shoot for the stars' for her future recovery, but she has enormous costs right now that are totally connected to her injury. We're most grateful for any contribution you can make.

Notes:

1. The beneficiary of this `GoFundMe' is Fiona Foley.

2. Funds will be used for the following purposes:

3. Fiona is the wife of one of the organisers - Aidan Foley.

4. The bank account being used for this is a joint-account held by Fiona and Aidan Foley and all details and transactions are being shared with the full organising team to ensure transparency.