A former nurse who had to learn how to walk again is now looking to complete a half marathon. Sian Jenkins, 60, from Ruddington was left unable to walk after suffering a Epidural Abscess infection, which resulted in spinal cord compression and a spinal cord injury.
Mrs Jenkins was struck by the injury while working as a theatre scrub nurse QMC during Covid's first wave in August 2020. But now after two years of rehab she will take part in the Robin Hood Half Marathon's 13.1 mile route through Nottingham on Sunday, September 25.
"I worked at Queen's Medical Centre since 1988, spent most of my career as a theatre scrub nurse in the Ear, Nose and Throat department. I was working during the first stage of the pandemic but then in August 2020, we were obviously just in the pandemic and I was helping in ICU," Mrs Jenkins explained.
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"Then I started to get really bad neck pain, so I wasn't really sure what it was. I wondered if it was all neck pain from wearing all the big respirators.
"About 10 days later I had been to A&E and had an MRI and basically by the time I had done that, I couldn't walk. I think I had ignored the pain for a while which people tend to do.
"So I had an emergency operation that morning and things changed from then on. When I woke up I couldn't move at all really, I could move my arms but not anything else.
"I've had to have rehab since then. I had two weeks bed rest and then I was sent to Linden Lodge [a rehabilitation centre at City Hospital], and this was all during Covid so I was in a wheelchair and not seeing much of my family.
"After two weeks I came home and just preserved with physio exercises, which I've done religiously, and then started walking again with the help of my husband, then around the block with a stick."
Before her injury, Mrs Jenkins had run three first marathons in 2005, 2011 and 2013. The former scrub nurse, who had to quit because of her injury, will be raising money for the Ear, Throat and Nose department where she worked for most of her career, with the half marathon marking two years after leaving the Linden Lodge rehabilitation centre at City Hospital on September 25, 2020.
On her preparation and reasons for fundraising, she added: "I'm nowhere near what I was [before the injury] but I've been walking every day training for this half marathon. I'm hoping that on the day I can do it, I've managed 20km odd walking around Ruddington.
"I can't run or anything like that but I'm going to walk it. I sometimes look at what I can't do instead of what I've achieved, but I am grateful because I never thought I'd be able to walk again.
"I'm hoping I will complete it, it would be a big achievement. I was not good in a wheelchair I kept hitting walls, but in Linden Lodge they were marvellous and they said 'no you will walk out of here'. "I'm very very grateful for all the care I've had, and this is a way to give thanks to the people who helped me and my colleagues."
A statement from Nottingham Hospitals Charity, on the linked JustGiving page, said: "On Sunday, September 25 2022, Nottingham Hospitals Charity supporters will take on the Robin Hood Half and Mini Marathons, raising funds for areas within our hospitals that are close to their hearts."
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