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A Nantwich girl who survived three brain haemorrhages – one which went undetected for four years – is defying the odds by running for charity to honour her carers.
Brave Ellie Calder, 20, has lived with a rare condition which can cause a haemorrhage any second of the day, for 13 years.
Now the former Brine Leas student, from Wrenbury, wants to raise money for the specialist neuroscience Walton Centre in Liverpool.
Ellie was just seven years old when she collapsed on Boxing Day in 2000, unable to move her arms and legs.
Parents Wendy and Arthur rushed her to hospital, but despite signs of blood in her spinal fluid following a lumber puncture, she was discharged without a CT scan.
Four years later, she was at school when she was struck down by another haemorrhage.
After two weeks treated as a suspected meningitis case, a consultant from the Walton Centre sent her for an emergency CT scan.
It revealed Ellie had a 5cm by 5cm Brain Arteriovenus Malformation (AVM) millimeters from her brain stem.
Another lumbar puncture confirmed she had suffered two brain hemorrhages – one in 2000 which was missed, and one in 2004.
“I wasn’t really able to comprehend what had happened or the seriousness of the situation,” recalls Ellie.
“I don’t remember too much of being sick, but I remember waking up and not being able to use my legs.
“The Walton Centre nurse wheeled me down to the children’s play area and sat with me for hours while my parents slept.
“She made posters with me to celebrate the New Year that I had missed, and told me that I was going to get better soon.
“People like that are the reason I wasn’t so scared – and the reason I want to do this.”
Ellie, who has four brothers and one sister, had specialist Stereotactic Gamma Knife Radiosurgery in Sheffield and was monitored twice a year with cerebral angiograms.
But the condition struck again the day before her Brine Leas School prom when she was 16.
“I’d had my nails and tan done with a friend and I was in the shower when I experienced a sudden sharp pain which I can only describe as having someone hit me on the back of the head with a shovel,” she recalls.
“I collapsed. I asked my mum to touch my feet to see if I could feel them and I couldn’t. I lost consciousness.
“It’s the last thing I can properly remember, before looking down at my hands and seeing my acrylic nails had grown out and my tan was patchy where my tubes and drips had been.
“I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much as when my mum told me I’d missed prom.”
This time she underwent emergency surgery and lost the ability to walk or see properly and even basic functions we take for granted every day such as going to the loo.
“It seemed as though my brain just did not want to work the way that it should have and I was warned that in 50 percent of cases permanent disability ensued.”
But Walton Centre staff helped Ellie to walk and see again. After a few months, she was out of hospital and starting college.
The AVM is still present – it’s so close to her brain stem, surgery is impossible – so she continues to be monitored at Walton.
But life for Ellie is almost back to normal. She is studying at university in London, and works at the popular Bhurtpore Inn in Aston during holidays.
“Walton saved my life, defying all odds, and have helped me get back to being me,” says Ellie.
“Without them, there is no way I could have completed A levels, gone to university and be living my life independently in London.
“I owe everything I am to them – they have not only given me life, but perspective and faith in people. I am sure that one day, they’ll be the reason that I get the all clear.”
Ellie is raising money for Walton Centre by taking part in Run to the Beat 2014 in September this year.
She has been supported by staff and former classmates from Brine Leas, and joining her on the run will be boyfriend James Hockenhull, 21, from Wrenbury, and friends Ellie Gibson, 21, Molly Churchward, 22, Miriam Skrentny, 20, and Joss Hancock, 22.
“They have been a massive support and are so excited to raise money for the hospital,” Ellie added.
You can help Ellie’s cause by sponsoring her at https://www.justgiving.com/Eleanor-Calder or by texting
UBEX92 followed by the amount to the number: 70070 (eg.’UBEX92 £5′ to 70070)
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