A mother of two, Jessica Ennis, had a really tough time. One day, she suddenly couldn’t move her legs while taking a bath.
She’d been feeling terrible for months with lots of pain and strange things happening to her body. Doctors later told her she had something called “functional neurological disorder,” which messed up how her brain and body communicated.
Jessica used to be very active in her town, helping with a local football club and organizing stuff for the community. She loved being a mom and a wife. But this condition changed everything. She now has seizures almost every day and can’t control her body. Doctors say she might need a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
Before this happened, she had a wonderful life with her family. She even ran half-marathons and went on adventures in their motorhome. But then, last year, she started feeling really sick. Her eyesight got messed up, her skin hurt, and she had terrible headaches. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and they said she had fibromyalgia. Life was really hard, but she managed.
Then, in June, right after her 30th birthday, she became paralyzed. She was in the bath and suddenly couldn’t move her legs. It was really scary. Her mom helped her out, and an ambulance took her to the hospital. That’s when they finally figured out what was going on.
Since then, Jessica’s life has completely changed. She can’t feel her legs anymore, and she has all sorts of strange things happening to her body, like seizures and shaking. She can’t even feed herself or take care of her kids. She’s incontinent, which means she can’t control when she goes to the bathroom. It’s a really tough situation, and she can’t stand being touched, even though all she wants to do is hug her family.
This condition she has is rare, and only a few people out of every 100,000 get it. Jessica’s community has been really nice and helped her raise money to change her house so she can live there comfortably when she leaves the hospital. They’ve raised over £1,100 so far.
Jessica is incredibly thankful for the support and the money because it will help her get things like a wheelchair lift, a special bathroom, and a bedroom on the ground floor so she can be with her family again.
The only thing that keeps her going is the thought of being home with her loved ones because she’s already missed so much. Saying goodbye to them after they visit her in the hospital is the hardest part of all this, even harder than knowing she might never walk again.
