Drivers will be all too aware that when living in a rural area, such as the Isle of Wight is, birds, badgers, foxes and rabbits can pose a risk when you’re driving around country lanes.
How often have you swerved to miss a bunny that is paralysed in the middle of the road, transfixed on your headlights?
Kathryn Clarke, who now lives on the Isle of Wight, was involved a serious road traffic incident in 2011 in Northamptonshire caused by her reflex reaction to avoid hitting a bird.
Brain and neck injuries
She swerved her car to avoid the bird, missed the bird, but as she describes, “went head-on through a wooden telegraph pole then hit a tree”.
She was airlifted to Walsgrave University Hospital, Coventry after the incident caused ‘non-life sustainable’ brain and neck injuries.
Kathryn says,
“I was in an induced coma, meant to be left quadriplegic, locked-in syndrome and unable to breathe by myself. I had a metal plate put into my neck holding my skull onto my spine.
“Four months later, I was transferred to Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where I continued my rehab. I was there for eleven months.”
Defying the medical odds
What happened during that eleven months was remarkable. Kathryn defied all medical odds and is now learning to do the basic everyday things the rest of us without mobility problems take for granted.
Kathryn is still using a wheelchair, but her long-term goal is to walk again. And she says she’s doing everything in her power to make that a reality.
The Kathryn Clarke Foundation
Kathryn’s efforts are not just focused inwards. With her husband, she has started The Kathryn Clarke Foundation. Its aim is to raise awareness and funds for Kathryn and others who are faced with similar difficulties.
Kathryn says,
“In the weeks and months after my accident, my husband really struggled to find out information on what we as a family were entitled, to such as benefits, support groups both emotionally and financially.
“My husband and children have learnt the hard way that life can change in a split second and the implications of this are like throwing a stone into water, they spread far and wide.”
Kathryn goes on to explain,
“Because I do not fit in a medical ‘box’, I have really struggled with such basic things like getting ongoing therapies that I am entitled to, counselling for all my family and pain relief to name a few.”
Along with the help of her husband and others, Kathryn hopes to raise as much awareness and funding as possible through ongoing and future fundraising events, sponsorship with companies and individuals, to be able to provide the information that she has found is so desperately hard to get hold of at a time when every second is incredibly precious.
You can find out more about the Kathryn Clarke Foundation by visiting the website.
