Help Dai walk again - Guillain-Barré syndrome GBS

Hi, my name is Shaun, and I'm fundraising for one of the greatest men you will ever meet, my best mate, Dai Colbeck.

For as long as I've known Dai, He's always been a get up and go kind of guy. Wether that be climbing mountains, wild camping, riding his motorbike, or even kayaking. Dai has a real passion for getting out there and living life to the full.

In July 2022 I received a call from Dai's then girlfriend Louise to tell me that Dai had been taken into hospital with an unknown condition that was taking over his whole body. At the time of the call, he couldn't move his arms and legs and the paralysis was spreading quickly.

In less than 24 hours of initial symptoms, the doctors took the decision to put Dai into an induced coma and put him on life support. The illness had taken over his whole body to the point that he couldn't swallow or breathe on his own.

Dai remained in the induced coma for 2 weeks on the ICU ward at The Countess of Chester Hospital. During this time he fought off numerous complications, including severely high blood pressure and a punctured lung. Dai was diagnosed as having an extremely rare illness called Guillain-Barré syndrome (Pronounced - Ghee-YAN Bah-RAY, also known as GBS), an illness where a persons own immune system attacks the bodies central nervous system. In the picture below you can see that whilst immune cells are fighting a virus, they are also attacking the mylene sheath of the body's nerves.

Here go's for my attempt at explaining GBS in layman's terms. Imagine melting the cable on an electrical appliance, a hoover for example, so that all of the copper wires come into contact with each other. The hoover simply wouldn't work as the power would never be able to get from the plug socket to the hoover. Now imagine that the plug socket is the human brain, and the hoover is your leg, or arm, or finger...... Simply put, the body looses its ability to transmit the signals from the brain out around the body. For a more educated and scientific explanation on GBS Please click - HERE

After 2 weeks of being in an induced coma, the doctors began to wake Dai up. He was totally paralyzed and still on life support, on which he remained for a further 2 months. Dai was in a position where he faced having to re-learn everything, from breathing to walking, he would have to learn it all again from scratch, things that everyone takes for granted.

But this didn't completely dampen Dai's spirits.... No No... Whilst Dai was still on life support, he popped the question to Louise and asked her to be his wife!! Louise said yes!! Congratulations guys!! (we'll come back to this and the reason for this Go Fund Me shortly).

When Dai was finally able to come off life support, and after a short stint in one of the stroke wards at The Countess, Dai was transferred to Clatterbridge hospital rehab center, where he would continue to receive around the clock care and undergo physiotherapy in a bid to get him well enough to return home.

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The below video is after months and months of physiotherapy working on the most basic of bodily functions, so this was a huge milestone, Dai's core was beginning to work again!

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Week by week, month by month, Dai would work his socks off to improve his condition so that he could finally return home to his family.

After a total of 405 days in hospital, two Christmas', two birthdays, the day finally came. Dai was able to go home!! What Dai has achieved so far is nothing short of incredible and is a testament to the man that he is.

Now lets get back to Dai and Lou's engagement and the whole reason for me telling you this story. Dai and Lou's big day is set for Saturday 30th of March 2024 and Dai, understandably, has one big goal at the forefront of his mind. He wants to be able to walk himself down the isle and stand unaided waiting for Lou, to then make their vows together and become husband and wife.

Now, as far as Dai has come, there is still a long way to go for him to achieve his big goal, and the answer lies with physiotherapy. Dai currently has 1 physio therapy session per week from the NHS, but specialists continue to say that increasing the volume of these sessions will help Dai recover quicker.

Private physiotherapy session's are rather expensive.... like £85 per hour expensive. For every £85 raised for Dai on this platform, Dai will be able to attend 1 additional session. The fund raising target is set at £2040, this equates to 1 x £85 per session per week, from now until the wedding day. Each session is a step forward to Dai being able to achieve his goal.

If you are reading this, and you are able to, please donate what you can to help Dai walk down the aisle. I appreciate that times are hard for everyone at the moment, so if you aren't able to donate, you can still help in a big way by sharing Dai's story. Please share this page to social media by pressing the share button at the top of this page.

Thank you for taking the time to read Dai's story, together we can make a difference.

Shaun.