THE Chipping Sodbury community is being urged to rally round one of its own, glamorous and outgoing nail technician Kate Sell who has been left paralysed by a horrific freak fall.

The 43-year-old is facing up to a year in hospital after sustaining multiple injuries when she crashed down the stairs sleepwalking at her home in Hartley Close on June 22.

Her neighbour and friend Wendy Walker, who was woken by Kate’s husband Kevin in the middle of the night of the accident, said: “She went down like a bowling ball.

“It was the early hours of the morning and Kevin was knocking on the door saying she had had a fall and she couldn’t move her legs. There was an ambulance outside but we never thought it would be as extensive as it was.”

Kate, described as a larger than life character by her friends, was rushed to intensive care where the extent of her life-changing injuries was discovered; a broken back in three places and severe damage to her spinal cord, a broken neck, fractured collar bone and skull, a fractured wrist and punctured lung.

From her hospital bed in Southmead Hospital where she has spent the past five weeks, Kate, sporting a bejewelled pink cast on her arm, said: “As you can imagine there isn’t’ a patch on me that isn’t black, blue and grazed.

“Three fractured vertebrae in my mid back and significant damage to my spinal cord has caused total loss of feeling and use of my limbs from the breasts down.

“It is unknown at this stage whether I will regain full use of my legs.”

A well known local karaoke singer and a regular in The Horseshoe and Beaufort Hunt pubs, Kate ran her own business Glitzy Nails and Beauty from the home she shares with husband Kevin, 47, a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence in Abbey Wood. Because she worked for herself and did not make National Insurance contributions for two years, she has been told she does not qualify for disability benefits.

Wendy, 52, director of Wotton Travel, and her husband Roger, 58, are now spearheading a fundraising drive to help support the couple.

“Kate would do the same for us,” said Wendy. “We want to raise some money to help not only cope financially as they are living on one salary but also buy any equipment she will need when she does come home.

“I also want to raise awareness of the dangers of your own home – stairs are one of the most dangerous things we all have.”

She added: “She is such a kind and sweet girl but Kate is frightened. If we can help take away some of the worry that would be brilliant.”

Having only ever sleepwalked once before in her lifetime, the horror fall came as a complete shock to all of Kate’s family and with her son Christopher expecting his first child in August, it could not have come at a worse time.

The Kate Sell Spinal Injuries (KSSI) fundraising campaign will be launched with bucket collections in Chipping Sodbury’s pubs this Friday (July 31) and other events are planned. To help in any way contact Wendy Walker on 07468 708543.