Maddi Neale-Shankster: Thai balcony fall survivor vows to walk again

A beautician who was paralysed after falling from a balcony in Thailand says she is determined to walk again.

Maddi Neale-Shankster, from Coventry, plunged 60ft (18.2m) on New Year's Day last year while holidaying with friends on the island of Koh Phangan.

She had surgery before flying back to the UK and despite enduring several operations and setbacks, she has gone back to work and is about to open her own salon.

"I've got to keep going," she said.

The 22-year-old said the support from friends and family had helped her through the last 12 months and said her accident had changed the way she looked "at everything".

"Not just even the little things, I think people need to be a lot more grateful at the things we do have," she said.

Miss Neale-Shankster suffered a broken back, two collapsed lungs and her ribs pierced her liver when she fell.

Friends and relatives leapt into action, with a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe raising more than £73,000 to get her home safely.

But her life had been turned upside down. She spent months on bed rest in hospital and said she still experienced pain "like tattoo needles 24 hours a day" despite being on a "never ending list" of painkillers.

Despite this, positivity and a sense of humour have allowed her to look to the future and she has returned to work in aesthetics and nails in mum Karen's salon, who she said had been her biggest support.

"I need my work to focus, I've always worked, it's what keeps me going," she said.

"But at the same time, I don't have a choice."

Seeing the challenges disabled people face daily had been a revelation, she said, from the time it takes to get ready in a morning to completing every day tasks.

Miss Neale-Shankster uses a wheelchair which is often too big for