Helena thanks team that helped her walk again
A woman who suffered a severe spinal injury has decided to give back to team who helped her walk again.
Helena Crowley, a travel agent, spent 5 months in CUH after suffering paralysis in her hands and legs.
Now, just over a year later, the keen golfer from Rochestown is drumming up support for a 4-ball golf classic at Monkstown Golf Club on 20 April.
The funds raised will allow CUH Charity to buy new equipment for the hospital’s physio unit which played a pivotal role in her recovery.
She said: “It was St Stephen’s Day in 2021 when all the feeling in my legs went and I couldn’t stand up. I was getting worse and after two days, I called my friend Lucy McPolin, an occupational therapist, who said I needed to get to hospital.” An operation in Dublin’s Mater Hospital was followed by the 5 month stint in CUH from early January until late May 2022.
She was then sent to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire for a further 10 weeks.
“Through all of this, it was CUH physio staff , and particularly Colin Clarke, who got me walking again and I decided that I wanted to do something to thank them,” said Lee Travel employee Helena, who previously worked with City Travel Cork and Sunworld Holidays.
She continued: “I was there during Covid-19 and had few visitors, so I had to make friends with all the nurses and physios!” The CUH physio team put her through her paces, using strengthening exercises, gym work and parallel bars.
She got back on her feet last March and by November was finally able to walk unaided.
She added: “I woke up one day, stood up, walked out of the bedroom into the bathroom and went ‘oh my God!’ I’ve always been positive, I’m never going to give up and it helped having a great friend in Jeanette Taylor, who has been with me through it all since I became ill.”
Helena now hopes her friends and contacts in the travel industry will be among those supporting the Golf Classic on April 20.
A portion of the proceeds will also go to the Robbie Smart Fund in memory of one of her colleagues, who died suddenly in November at the of 44. The Laois native, who lived in Drogheda, was posthumously honoured with the first On the Road Hero award at the Irish Travel Industry’s 2023 awards.
Book your tee time, €400 per team, on Eventbrite.