'Lifeline' rehab centre helps Ivy, 9, walk again after illness

A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl who was left paralysed from the neck down after being diagnosed with a rare neurological condition has gone back to school and can walk with a frame thanks to specialist rehabilitation.

- RACHAEL DAVIS

Ivy Amos lives in Bath with her mum Georgia Wynes, her dad Daniel, and her sisters Ruby, 13 and Ella, eight.

Always a "happy, healthy" girl, Ivy's mother said she had "never had any health problems at all, her whole life" until February 2024, when she became unwell in a way Georgia could not explain.

Ivy was diagnosed with transverse myelitis a rare neurological condition caused by inflammation of the spinal cord and she was left paralysed from the neck down, but thanks to a free week of specialist activity-based rehabilitation at Neurokinex, a registered charity that supports individuals living with paralysis, she is well on the road to recovery.

Now Ivy is raising money for Neurokinex and its facilities which Georgia describes as a "lifeline", through a social media challenge that aims to enable thousands more people with spinal cord injuries to access free sessions of rehabilitation.

Ivy's battle began in February 2024, when she was eight. She had been poorly with what was believed to be a virus, and her mum Georgia had taken her "back and forth" to the doctors. However, on February 27 2024, Ivy had a seizure at home.

"It was quite a big seizure. It went on for a long time," Georgia said.

"She had to be flown over in an air ambulance to Bristol Children's Hospital, where she stayed for about a week - she had viral meningitis."

After a week, Ivy was discharged with a course of antibiotics and seemed to be making a great recovery from the meningitis. Georgia would take her into their local hospital each day for her next dose of antibiotics, but one day Georgia spotted that something "wasn't right" with Ivy.

"I just knew in my instincts that something wasn't right, and she was complaining of a pain in her neck," Georgia explained.

"I begged them, there and then, and I said: 'Please, can you check her over?'