When Kate met PHOENIX...

Kate Bosley, 58, lost her confidence when a brain injury led to sight loss, until she found help

KARA O’NEILL

Kate Bosley doesn’t remember much about the accident that brought her on a journey and led her to the Guide Dogs.

‘I’m told I was in Tenerife in February 2013 with my husband, John, 58, and we’d gone for a bike ride,’ Kate says.

It was at some point during the ride that Kate had fallen off her bike. It was a bad fall and she’d hit her head.

‘I’d been rushed to hospital, where I remained unconscious for three weeks,’ Kate says. ‘John told me that he’d asked the doctors whether I’d wake up with brain damage. They’d replied, “Sir, I’m afraid the question is whether Kate wakes up at all.”’

Thankfully, after 21 days, Kate did show signs of improvement. But coming out of her coma, she had absolutely no recollection of what had happened.

‘I didn’t even remember that I’d got on a plane to go to Tenerife in the first place,’ she says.

Luckily, her health insurance covered her flying back to the UK, where she was taken to Maidstone Hospital for further treatment.

What followed were six long, gruelling months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy as Kate tried to get back on her feet.

‘I noticed that as I started to be able to move around a little more, I was constantly bumping into things,’ says Kate, a former hospice carer.

‘At first, I put it down to the fact that I was just a bit unsteady on my feet after spending weeks and weeks in a hospital bed. But even as my leg muscles got stronger, the problem continued.’

Of course, at the time, with such a long road to recovery in front of her, Kate wasn’t too concerned.

‘I was in a lot of pain, and my short-term memory was horrendous, so to begin with, that was my biggest struggle,’ Kate explains.

‘But as time went on, I realised that as well as all the other problems I had, my vision had been quite badly affected too.’