A STEETON woman left paralysed following a parachuting accident has spoken openly about her life in the hope it will encourage people to support research into spinal injuries.

Nurse Penny Roberts, 35, was parachuting over Florida when her main and emergency chutes became tangled and she plunged from 13,000 feet.

Her neck, back, shoulder, pelvis and leg were broken and she suffered a collapsed lung and fractured skull.

Penny hopes her story will help raise awareness of spinal injuries, especially during spinal injuries week which begins on June 15.

"I awoke into a living nightmare of pain, paralysis and torment," she said.

"It's a very long story, but there followed nine months in hospital, grief for the life I could no longer live and the fight to rebuild any sort of independent life at all and the loss continued - loss of my job, boyfriend, income and even loss of hope at times."

Penny did get engaged and is now expecting her first child in October, but the relationship didn't work out.

"There are extra stresses on a relationship when you're disabled," she said. "It's easy to see the physical restrictions, but there were emotional stresses that neither of us were prepared for."

Penny revealed Superman actor Christopher Reeve broke his neck in a riding accident some five weeks after her.

"I was told that nothing could be done because the spinal cord was not repairable," she said.

"The true answer is of course that scientists are looking at many different aspects of spinal injury, from reducing the initial damage to spinal cord regeneration.

"I mentioned this work to the hospital and they said it only give people false hope.

"Presumably having no hope helps people rehabilitate quickly? Well, I'm sorry, but it nearly pushed me over the edge and I wanted to die."

Penny told the Herald the first milestones in spinal cord repairs had been passed, with scientists now preparing to go for human trials.

"The biggest scandal of all is that spinal research is totally funded by charitable donations," she continued.

"But it's not just people with broken necks and backs who should be interested in spinal research, it's everybody and especially anyone with children.

"If we end this now the next generation will never have to go through the living hell of being paralysed after a spinal injury."

Penny is also in the process of attempting to raise £10,000 for a special-wheelchair which will also enable her to have an adapted car to get about.

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