I’m Carrianne and I’m 38 years old. I previously worked for three years as a compliance manager in a solicitor’s office and before that I was a beautician and hairdresser in my own salon.
My life changed in April 2021. I started getting numbness in my body and was admitted to hospital. They found a cavernoma (also known as a tumour) in my spinal cord in June, which was removed, but left me paralysed from the lower chest down.
I arrived in the spinal centre in Salisbury on 16th August 2021 and left on 10th January 2022. My home was two and a half hours away in the Forest of Dean.
To start with I was bedridden, but I built time up in my wheelchair after I started physio. Around three weeks into my stay, I felt strong enough to venture down and see the beautiful garden.
The garden was a very safe and calm place to meet loved ones to sit and talk and not feel like you were in a hospital setting. I got into the photography workshops with Hilary Stock and it was amazing. Hilary has this warm presence about her with this passion for photography. The way she spoke and taught me and Barry, someone I got to know in the spinal centre, made it interesting and I was aways excited for the next session.
Hilary gave me something to look forward to each week and brought out a fire in my belly. She gave me a passion and helped me to look forward to life again after being told I was never going to walk again. Spending time with Hilary and Barry is something I’ll remember forever. They’ll always have a special place in my heart.
It was also nice to get to know lots of other people in the garden. We would often get together in groups in the garden room and feel at ease, talking freely about how we were feeling and what we were all going through.
I met so many special friends in hospital and they became my family. Having the garden meant we could feel more ourselves and just feel normal really, which made such a difference to our morale. The fun and laughs I had with Fiona, who is like my sister, were amazing. We spent so many nights in the garden room and we just laughed and cried together. It was just great to be somewhere else with someone who just gets you.
My plan now is to settle in at home, in a new house, spend time with my family and get back into my photography. The garden and my workshops with Hilary have inspired me and in the long term, I really hope I can turn it into a business of product photography. That would be a dream come true.
