Tayla's Road to Recovery

Christmas Eve, 2022

My 17-year-old niece Tayla went for a drive with two of her close friends, excited to visit the Christmas lights in her local neighbourhood and ready for a fun family Christmas.

Soon after midnight, the fun trip to see the lights took a nasty turn when the girls' excitement turned to distraction and the vehicle she was in somehow hit a tree on a road only 10 minutes from home.

Thankfully the girls that were with Tayla were able to walk away with minor injuries but for Tayla, this was not the case.

With the help of bystanders and her brave friends, Tayla was taken by ambulance to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where she is today, being treated for multiple injuries including fractures to her collar bone, sternum, spine, pelvis, spleen, facial wounds and bruising on her brain which is causing her some memory loss and lots of confusion and distress.

We spent the night and all of Christmas and Boxing Day by her bedside, explaining to her over and over why she wasn't home opening presents with her sister and brother, begging her to stay still while they assessed her spinal injuries and desperately trying to reassure her and ourselves that she would be able to go home soon enough.

A few days on and we have an idea of what the future holds for Tayla - she will get back on her feet but we don't know when.

What we do know is that Tayla is going to require surgery to repair the bad break in her collarbone before we can even think about rehabilitating her spine and pelvic injuries. Tayla will need extensive care and rehabilitation and her mum, who is a single parent to 3 beautiful children, will need to stop work for the next 6 months at least to be able to care for her and support her recovery.

The family live in a modest rental in Adelaide and with a single parent working and living week to week, we are trying to raise enough funds to simply keep the family afloat during this time. The funds will cover rent, bills, equipment hire, travel to and from the hospital and rehabilitation services, and any private physio needed.

The most important thing this money will do is give Tayla the one thing she needs most, the physical and emotional support of her mum without the worry of the family being displaced without the funds to pay rent and bills.

As with so many people in 2022, sick, annual and carers leave is depleted and Tayla's mum is facing the reality of taking 6 months off work unpaid in order to get her daughter back on her feet with the ultimate goal being for Tayla to get back to dancing before the end of her final year of her school dance program in 2023.

This is the fight of Tayla's life and she has a strong network of family and freinds rallying around her - we just need some extra help and kindness from anyone who can give even the smallest amount or just the kind act of sharing her story so others may decide to help join her fight too!