I first hurt my back in 1976 aged 28 whilst living in South Africa (making the children’s beds whilst wearing high heeled shoes).

I recovered well but as the years passed my back would go into spasm at more regular intervals and it would take me longer and longer to recover. I was diagnosed with ‘Bulging Discs’ and ‘Wear and Tear’ of the discs.

In the intervening years I visited physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, – I submitted myself to Reiki, Faith Healing, Traction, Massage and Acupuncture, I went to every type of exercise class and tried to help myself as much as was possible. However, by 2004 my life became one long episode of pain and inactivity and I was prescribed various different painkillers including oral morphine.

Over the years I visited quite a few orthopaedic surgeons in Lancashire, Surrey, Aberdeen, Yorkshire, Devon and Australia and unfortunately was always told that ‘surgery was not an option’. I continued to function between the debilitating spasms and it got to the stage where it was taking 10-12 weeks to get over an episode and I was constantly in pain and within days or weeks my back would ‘go’ again. It wore me down. I spent two weeks in a pain clinic in Australia.

We returned to the UK from Australia in 2006 (on a Skybed) as I was unable to sit or stand for any period of time. We were unable to do any of the travelling in our retirement, which we had so much wanted to do. I was in such a state of pain and depression and to be honest there were times when I felt that my life was not worth living. All of this had an impact on my husband too who has always been very supportive, but we had no life to speak of. We couldn’t plan anything, holidays were a no-no and I couldn’t even play with or lift up either of my grandchildren.

I returned to see my physio of old and he suggested I see Mr. Krishna who had now set up the spinal unit at North Tees and whom he thought may be able to offer me some hope. I saw Mr. Krishna in 2006 and arranged to have a discography but unfortunately I cancelled the procedure, as I was too scared. By the following year I was so desperate that I summoned up the courage to have the discography, which by the way was painless and not a problem at all. After a lot of thought (as I was so frightened of surgery) I had an L4/5 and L5/S1 posterior lumbar interbody fusion (plif) in September 2007 and recovered well over the following months. I am now able to do my own housework, have returned to walking up to 5 miles a day, can socialise with my friends and play with my grandchildren and take part in community activities once more. The strongest painkiller I take now is the occasional Paracetamol. I feel like I have had a new lease of life and am able to do more activities now than I had been able to over the last several years and everyone has seen the change in me.