Katherine's story.

For months after my car accident, my life had stopped, and I think it's highly likely I might have killed myself. I was distressed and in pain for so long.

The insurers rely on clients’ ignorance, and the greed of the lawyers, and they grind people down. They want you on your knees so they can pay as little as possible: it took them three years to admit liability despite images and footage. It's a **** show.

To have someone to steady the waters to keep everything going, taking that weight for me, that's how it felt after I met Helen.

My mental health was damaged over 3 1/2 years, but the settlement has drawn a line. My mental health is improved, and now I know I've got to rebuild my physical health.

I was already paralysed from an accident 16 years ago, when the kids were tiny. I was based in Brighton and was walking down the street when I fell down a tiny manhole on a Regency Street. I fell 6 or 7 feet, head first. I was lucky I only fractured one bone, but it was a T1 vertebra.

So now I'm paralysed, but I kept my stomach muscles and that made a huge difference. Every patient has their unique different injury. I now have incomplete paralysis: I have some feeling and slight movement in my left leg, but I can't walk.

But I've still had a great life. I brought up my kids myself and rebuilt my life immediately. I just had to get on with it. I'm a very active wheelchair user: I've been skiing; I walked the dog 5 miles every day; I was vice chair of governors at the school, chair of the PTA. I drove the kids to all their clubs, music, drama, sailing, tennis as well as constantly being at the park or beach with our wonderful group of friends.

I was driving my youngest to a night job at Marks and Spencer about 9:00 pm on a December night. I was driving a road I know very well, and I said to him, ‘I love it like this, no one on the road’. And suddenly this kid jumps a red light. I tried to avoid him, I braked, and I swerved, and drove the Galaxy through some railings into a car showroom. I took out two cars in the dealers. It happened in seconds, but it felt like half an hour. I kept hitting things, I thought I was going to die, everything exploded, there was smoke everywhere.

We were both unconscious. I came to first, but my body had spasmed, and I couldn't move. Seb was unconscious, and I thought he was dead. It was the worst moment of my life. Seb came to but he couldn't open the rear car door. He had to climb over the back seat, and over me to get out. We were lucky to avoid damage to Seb's legs. Seb dragged me out. It was a huge trauma.

In the stress my spasticity kicked off, and both my legs were rigid. A 19-year-old witnessed the accident and came over and helped lift me into my wheelchair. The police arrived. The other driver was a kid, he kept saying ‘I'm so sorry, I’m so sorry’. This changed later.

The adrenaline had kicked in, and I was as high as a kite. I think that’s why the police didn't call an ambulance. Retrospectively I see that was very negligent. I could potentially have suffered huge damage.

After a couple of hours, Seb went to work (he was also high on adrenaline). I rang my elder son and asked him to come home please. I was like a pinball machine, my mind was all over the place, I was imagining all sorts of scenarios.

The police took me home, my son got me in and then I cried, and I cried. I’d thought Seb was dead, I was so relieved.

Before the accident I was really fit, and my first thought was to call everyone and just somehow get through Christmas. I called my mother and my brother collected me and the boys. I was so in shock I don't really remember that Christmas, I got through it on medications; I had a weird cartoon smile on my face.

I saw photos of the crash on a news site, it was shocking. The car was written off; it was so awful to see that I couldn't share it with my mum.

On Boxing Day everything fell to pieces. I'd got through Christmas, hadn't ruined it for everyone else. I went into a sort of catatonic state, my mind and body fell to pieces. I got a taxi to the doctors’ and the GP told me to go to hospital NOW. A&E did some tests on me, but everyone was terrified to treat me, they were befuddled.

I couldn't leave my flat for five months. I have a close network but didn't think I would be coming back. I was in so much pain; I had no support for the first few months. It was only when I got to meet Helen that things started for me.

Someone had recommended a lawyer, but it wasn't right: my gut said, ‘uh oh’. A mentor from the Backup Trust referred me to the Backup website. I contacted Helen on a Tuesday, and she visited me that Thursday. I opened the door and thought ‘Yes!’. We hit it off, and she stayed for hours.

Helen lined up consultants, she got money from the insurers. I felt as though she was carrying me like you’d carry a child: ‘I'm here, I've got you, there's nothing I cannot do for you’. That's how she made me feel. I felt safe for the first time since the crash months ago.

Helen saved me on so many levels - I felt seen, I felt heard, I felt safe. For the first time, she made me feel as if there was a possibility this might be OK, or I might survive this. Up to this point I thought this might be it; perhaps I cannot move forward in the way I did before: it was such a shock. I've always been able to move forward, but now I almost thought it was unrecoverable.

The driver's lawyers were a ******* nightmare. The driver had reneged: he denied running the light. The crash Investigators called me, and said it was pretty shabby, they thought it was his fault, they had footage and they were going to charge him. They said it was up to me if we charge him, but I said ‘no, let him be cautioned’.

He was denying it to everyone in Brighton. After initially being fine, the insurers realised the severity of the crash, and they said he didn't do it. They became********* and blamed everything on my spinal injury.

I felt vilified and thought I was going insane. I was vulnerable, I felt it personally, I felt judged, accused of lying and cheating. They wanted me to throw in the towel. As it went on, I became damaged, I felt suicidal. I was neglecting the kids and missed Henry's university journey because of it.

Helen was extraordinary. I explained I couldn't cope with emails every day and she took on everything I needed. She was fighting everything for me, she made me feel I wasn't insane. The insurers want you to doubt yourself, but Helen would listen to me, and she would have none of their stuff.

I'd send 3 or 4 diatribes to her, and because she'd taken the time to know me and understand me, she read between the lines and knew how to react. It was so difficult, so awful for someone going through this ordeal. Helen could comprehend, and forensically wade through it, and know what to do. Helen has fierce compassion and fierce intelligence; it was phenomenal to have her in your corner.

We got a very good settlement, more than the barristers thought we would.

Mentally I'm relieved that I can restart my life. I don't feel angry; I've got to rebuild again. I've done that before and I can do it again. I'll rebuild to 5 miles a day with my dog in the woods: that's the plan.

Helen says: “It was a pleasure to act for Katherine. Although Katherine’s claim was not in respect of her spinal cord injury, my knowledge of SCI was essential in understanding the impact of the subsequent road traffic accident and the devastating changes that it made to her life. I am very pleased with the outcome. I look forward to staying in contact with Katherine and witnessing how she rebuilds her life”.