Charlotte Florence

Shortly before leaving for the US to celebrate her birthday with her brother, Charlotte assumed this would be the last thing she’d be doing before returning “to normal life” in the UK. She never expected to end her usual pre-yoga sunrise surf down a steep slope in the jungle. Charlotte had lost control of the quadbike she was driving, leaving shards of bone lodged in her spinal cord after an explosion of her L2 vertebrae. “I could not feel my legs and was face down in the jungle before dawn, screaming for help”.

Charlotte was told she’d never walk again and that she should try to get used to living life in a wheelchair. She’d heard of Ed’s story by a friend but was also warned of hearing about miracle stories “as it would not be me”. Thankfully with the support of the multidisciplinary team, Charlotte started progressing. She was able to meet with the same Neurophysio that had helped Ed and was told of the potential of a full recovery. Charlotte hasn’t been able to have as much physio as was needed in the early stages of her accident but with M2M’s help, she’s been able to “take steps to work more and more in a way that was possible for me (mainly at home for a long time). So far it seems to be working as Pete saw a lot of improvement when he saw me again and I was able to do a walk up and down the hills of Hampstead Heath recently!”.

Despite not being able to join any challenges this year due to mobility issues, seeing other beneficiaries with spinal cord injuries at our Rays of Light Gala dinner in October of 2022 gave Charlotte an immense amount of hope. "It was the first time in 18 months I had met and seen people who had made incredible recoveries from SCIs”.

Charlotte’s hoping to aim big next year with a Nepal trek as well as eager to join Walk the Coast 2023. She has started climbing at a Para climbing charity in London and is looking forward to all the experience she’s gained and newfound mindset to the mountains.

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