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STUDENT IN SKYDIVING FUNDRAISER AFTER SEEING HOW DOG RECEIVED TRAINING TO ASSIST HER DISABLED MUM

- By POST REPORTER

SOPHIA Hollis was approaching her 10th birthday when her mum collapsed in the bathroom during a suspected stroke.

Two and a half years later, mum Anita, of Arnold, was diagnosed with idiopathic ataxia, a neurological disorder which affects balance and walking, speech, swallowing, vision and hearing.

She also has small fibre neuropathy, which affects sensations in the hands and feet.

Anita, now 51, was diagnosed in late 2015 and the condition forced her to leave her nursing job after 20 years. She now uses a wheelchair, walking sticks or a mobility scooter.

Anita, who worked at Queen's Medical Centre for five years and spent 15 years in community nursing, found herself increasingly isolated and anxious to go out on her own, finding her local shop's aisles too narrow to navigate in her mobility scooter.

She was once even made to feel that a supermarket security guard suspected she was drunk when her condition caused her to fall into a freezer, coupled with slurred speech.