When Rhona Barton collapsed on the ground during a family trip away from home, she had no idea she’d lost the ability to walk.
Only months earlier the young woman had been diagnosed with ME, a long-term condition with a wide range of symptoms, including extreme tiredness.
She fell to the pavement while walking along George Square in Glasgow and struggled to get back up.
Asking her brother Richard for help, she remembers telling him: “I’m just exhausted. I can’t get my legs to work.”
‘I couldn’t understand why people were staring at me’
Rhona’s health journey started when she fell ill with labyrinthitis, an inner ear infection that affects balance, in August 1998.
She was 21 and just a few months into a new job working as a hotel receptionist when she had her first dizzy spell.
“I was in a meeting with some of the senior management and I couldn’t understand why people were staring at me,” Rhona, of Aberdeen, explains.
“It turned out I had fallen off my seat.
“I was on the floor and they were standing over me. As far as I was concerned, I still felt like I was upright and fine.”
‘Life had shrunk down to me and my bedroom’
Rhona went home to recover for a few days, but it ended up being almost 10 years before she could work again.
By September 1998 her doctor had diagnosed her with ME because her health had deteriorated.
The long-term condition is often triggered by a virus.
As friends of the same age were striding out into the world building up their savings and careers, Rhona was stuck at home, often confined to her bed.
“When I look back now I think about how isolated I was,” she says.
“And I guess if I’d put thought into it at the time I would have realised that I was lonely because I wasn’t out there with my friends.
“But at the same time, I have an excellent family. My dad and my mother would bring the dogs out to visit and, when I was able, they got me into my wheelchair.
“They’d take me for a trundle around the park so I could be out in some fresh air and see something of the world.”
Diagnosed with ME: ‘My world opened up again’
Rhona was fortunate to be put in touch with a charity set up to help people diagnosed with ME and got access to leaflets and put in touch with others with the condition.
“My own world opened up again because life had pretty much shrunk down to me and my bedroom,” she says.
“Suddenly, here’s a group of people from across the UK that have the very same thing.”
Then, in 2005 Rhona’s life changed again – and all because of a car crash during another family holiday.
She was travelling down to Bath and Wells in south-west England when another vehicle crashed into the back of their car during a motorway traffic jam.
“Mum was driving, I was in the passenger seat and we both ended up with whiplash,” she explains. “It was really painful.”
But she believes the injury “shocked” her body into starting to work again.
As they carried on with their trip, Rhona soon felt like she might be able to try walking again – to the amazement of her family.
By the end of that week she took her first six steps with the help of her aunt and mother on each side to support her.
‘I’m grateful I had a car crash’
When Rhona got home she booked an appointment with her GP and was referred to a physiotherapist.
It was a slow process but the sessions, along with time in a hydrotherapy pool, gradually helped her walk again.
Building up her strength over the coming months, she found she could start doing simple tasks such as brushing her teeth or getting dressed.
By the summer of 2016, she had progressed from a wheelchair to using crutches and then a walking stick.
“The pain from the whiplash obviously wasn’t pleasant but it was the turning point,” Rhona, who now walks without any aids, says.
“I don’t advocate it, but I am grateful that I had a car crash because otherwise, I don’t know when, or if, I would have got out of the wheelchair.
In recent years Rhona, now 45, has been giving talks about being diagnosed with ME to local groups to help them understand the condition.
She now works as a coach inspiring others to make big changes in their lives and has also launched a podcast.
She’s built up a “can-do attitude” to life although she still knows not to push herself too hard.
‘Every morning I check under the bedcovers and wiggle my toes’
But she’ll never forget the impact being diagnosed with ME had on her causing her to miss out on most of her young adult life.
“I look back on it now and I do get quite emotional thinking about it,” she says.
“Even now one of the first things I do in the morning when I wake up is wiggle my toes – I look down the bed covers and hope to see them move.
“And if the toes wiggle I think OK, my legs are working today – it’s going to be a good day.”
You can listen to one of Rhona’s podcasts here
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If you are now in a position to help others by talking about your journey you can reach me by emailing charlotte.thomson@ajl.co.uk
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