My Wonky Story

In 1998, 6 months after graduating from uni, I was teaching English on a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean named La Réunion. One day I went to the beach after having just collected by best friend from the airport that morning. He was planning to stay for a couple of weeks to explore the island with me. Little did we know that only hours after he had landed, he would be rescuing me from drowning in the ocean. I dived into the waves not realising there was a sand bank underneath, banged my head hard and immediately broke my neck and was instantly paralysed, unable to move at all, thinking I was about to die. 10 days before, I had just celebrated my 23rd birthday. 

Fast forward many years to 2018, now a wife and a Mum to a gorgeous 9 year old daughter, I once again experienced a huge health issue. I got a very serious pressure sore which completely prevented me from being able to sit in my wheelchair, if I had tried, I could very well have died. I had to endure 15 months of complete bedrest, only able to lie on my side, from one side to the other and back again. During this time I had sepsis twice and was rushed into hospital. This whole episode left my physical and mental health severely depleted. 

After 5 months of bedrest, seeing me so low, my husband bought me a simple set of watercolour paints and told me I should teach myself how to paint, lying on my side, to pull myself out of depression. I had never painted before and dropped art at school as soon as I possibly could. For wont of anything better to do, I started to use my new paints and began enjoying it. Before I knew it, I was painting everyday and it helped me so much with my mood. Friends and family visited and started to admire my masterpieces which spurred me on more. 

I sold my first paintings in late October and this has gone from strength to strength. ‘The Wonky Artist’ was born once I could finally sit in my wheelchair again and I realised that none of my paintings were ‘straight’. I have no grip in my hands and very limited feeling so to this day, I hold the brush using both hands at once. In 2018 I decided to share my story on social media and now have a decent social media following. 

In January 2019, I had a 7 hour long plastic surgery operation. Following that, we had to wait a month to see whether the surgery had been successful. A complete rollercoaster of a month. Finally we discovered the surgery had been 95% successful but I then had to undergo 4 separate mini operations to repair the rest. I was in hospital for 3 months.