Rehab for Rosey London Marathon 2023 Natalie Hern

Hi,

In 2019, I was lucky enough to secure a ballot place for London Marathon 2019, but had to defer due to a foot operation until 2020 - and that's when the world went mad. So, my ballot place was deferred until this year, when I will run the London Marathon on April 23rd 2023. I was not obligated to raise funds for charity but certainly did not want to miss an opportunity so approached my boss of 24 years, Lloyd at Sofasofa, and asked if he would sponsor me for a charity of his choice. He suggested Rehab for Rosey, a fundraising page set up by a friend of his whose daughter Rosey had suffered a terrible horse riding accident that broke her neck - this was April 2022 and she was just 19. As you can imagine, her life has changed forever and, having a daughter myself, I can't even bear to imagine the horrific and life-changing effect this has had on Rosey and her family so I am only too happy to help as much as I can.

Any donations would be so gratefully received and Lloyd has generously offered to fund-match whatever I can raise (with a generous limit) - so I'm hoping you can help and dig deep and I will be forever grateful to you :)

With thanks and a massive hug - Natalie

Please read Rosey's story

Rosey’s story: ‘The day the world changed forever’ Written by her parents and her identical twin, Scarlett.

Each and every parent thinks that it won’t happen to their child, that it only happens to others. But on April 13th 2022 at 3.45pm it happened to Rosey. In a split second her life, her world, our lives and our world changed in the most unimaginable way. Rosey was doing one of the activities she delighted in – horse-riding. An activity in which she excelled beyond all our hopes and dreams and one where she was an equal with her peers. But that day, at 19 years of age, Rosey was thrown from a horse that subsequently slipped and fell onto her, breaking her neck. She suffered irrevocable damage to her spinal cord at C5 which required an emergency lifesaving vertebrae re-build whilst she was in a coma, subsequently undergoing a tracheostomy.

At the time of her accident, she was unable to breathe without assistance, unable to speak and unable to move. For those who don’t know, Rosey has had a fight on her hands since before birth, enduring major neurological complications throughout her life. We have fought the challenges together and mostly Rosey has won. But this time the challenge posed is beyond what we are able to capture in words and this time we need to ask for help. As a consequence of her catastrophic injuries, Rosey has paralysis in both her hands, all fingers and both lower limbs (quadriplegic). Currently she is in her ninth week of intensive care but thankfully, as we write this, she can now breathe independently. Due to the severity of Rosey’s injuries and care she requires in Wales this compromises her discharge (Home Package) to England where Rosey’s GP is located. Changing GP to that of one based in Wales conversely opens up headaches and germane worries that support in England will not be what it should be when she is relocated back to Cornwall. As an example NHS Wales have already refused application of digital technology assistance such as Igaze and a voice activation for Rosey’s ipad . Fortunately a very kind spirited gentleman with spinal injuries dedicated his time to help Rosey – this was ostensibly a simple action for the NHS Wales but was refused while she was still in ITU. In a nutshell budgetary constraints result in NHS Wales and NHS England seeking to ‘pass the buck’ to their counterpart so alarmingly it is Rosey, caught between a rock and hard place, that will lose out.

Currently Rosey’s younger siblings and stepdad have to travel 200 miles to visit her in hospital. Ordinarily we all reside in Cornwall so as a family we are trying to manage living between two homes (her dad’s and her mum’s), endlessly using the M5 motorway, whilst trying to work and balance the needs of all five children at the same time. We have set up this GoFundMe page to help assist Rosey and to try to acquire as many of the essential services and equipment for her rehabilitation as possible. We dearly want to be able to maximise and optimise her future quality of life, despite the intense challenge of her injuries. Rosey will need lifelong care along with the following: • Intense neuro-physiotherapy • A wheelchair that will enable her to go on the beach • Essential adjustments to our home • Spinal cord stimulation (that is sadly only available in areas outside of the UK) and more.

We would like to reach out to all of you amazing people and ask as many of you as possible to nurture and support Rosey in the months and years’ ahead. We also wish to raise awareness of spinal cord injury and are determined to improve the quality of life, not only for Rosey but also for others in this position – children, parents, families – every single individual who may be affected. Rosey’s journey will be continuously updated with news of her progress alongside details of how you can get involved with future fundraising events.

We hope to inspire people to share their photos along the way whilst including the words Run Ride Read Repeat 4 Rosey in any fundraising activities. Thank you so much for reading Rosey’s Story.

With grateful thanks and much love from us all x #runridereadrepeat4rosey

Visit www.gofundme.com/f/rehab-for-rosey