How apt that you should write on here today and prompt me into action. Since I started working with Tasha (so long ago now!) I have had another baby girl and moved house. My husband has also been away working for a few months so it has been a busy time. However, I’m hoping to get back to the book, so it would be great to have a male perspective on some of my writing if you are up for helping me….can you tell me what being a c6 tetraplegic means for you, ie some of the things you can and can’t do, for example?

Cheers in advance

Jane x

Entry to teenage is a transitional phase in life that is awaited and very much anticipated. At this age, kids want more freedom from parents and more freedom in decision making. Being social and fitting in becomes very important. Due to my injury, all this became impossible. In Kenya, paraplegics and quads don’t go to school together. Almost all the regular schools here don’t have provisions for us. There are schools for the disabled but I never saw myself attending one. I never left the house, except for doctor’s appointments, because I couldn’t deal with all the stares. Through friends, family and prayer, I found the courage to go back to regular school. I was depressed in the first few weeks due to cruel and ignorant comments, questions and deeds of the other students but life in school gradually got better. I’m the first “handicapable” to ever attend the school.

My parents did a good job of not involving me in the financial aspect of my situation so I don’t know whether they had aid or not. I have had boyfriends after my injury but the most serious relationship happened in 2009. I was invited to a party by a friend, where I met the guy. Initially, he paid no attention to me and I barely noticed him but later on we got to talking and he called me a couple of days later. From then we started texting each other practically daily and that’s when he showed interest in me. This really took me by surprise. We started dating after a month since we met and life seemed so perfect. Eventually, he broke up with me because we weren’t having sex. When I explained that there are some parts of my body I still couldn’t feel. That’s all I’ll put up here because there are very sensitive issues I have a problem putting up for the world to see. Swapping email addresses or even using skype would be a great idea for sharing much more.

I have always wanted to write a book, and the other week I saw a programme on British TV which was all about sex education for kids in the UK. One of the sections of the programme was about people in wheelchairs having relationships. One of the people in the programme had lost the use of his legs when he slipped and fell onto a knitting needle. It wasn’t really explained how exactly it happened but the whole ‘horror’ of a small accident turning into a major lifechanging incident sparked my interest. I basically want to follow my character from just before the accident happens, through his life to the ‘climax’ of the book where he meets a girl and tries to have a baby.

Obviously things are a little different for you – mainly because you are a girl! – so some of the issues faced by my chatacter will not be the same. However, you have to assume that I know NOTHING about what your rehab involved, how your friends reacted, how your family reacted, how your house was adapted, what financial help your family got – if any (and again, I know this will be different as I am writing from a UK perspective), how YOU felt about the accident, whether you became depressed, how your physio was carried out and where, where you live now, whether you have had any boyfriends, what use of your arms you have, whether you can do things like dress and wash yourself or if you get help, and even things as simple as how you get in and out of a taxi or the shower or go to the bathroom are all unclear to me – is this all easy, or is every day still a struggle?? – all of these things are a mystery to me.

Just reading your story above was inspiring, I was interested to see that you went back to school – did it take you longer to complete your exams? Did you study part time? What is your plan now?! So many questions… Anyway, back to the book. Because I have a seven month old, I have only set myself the target of writing 500 words a day. This is not necessarily consecutive, and won’t necessarily all be used, but I need to keep it manageable! Bite sized chunks, or it all gets too overwhelming. I guess what I’d like is your permission to weave some of your story into mine… I fifure if I do 500 words a day, in a year, I might have something like a book. If you’d still like to help perhaps we could start talking about some of the questions I have listed above xxx