Teenage Worthing football starlet left paralysed after fall (From The Argus)

Teenage Worthing football starlet left paralysed after fall

7:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009 in

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A footballing prodigy has been left paralysed after she plunged from a tree and broke her spine.

Lauren Jones, 13, has been told she will never walk again after she fell more than 20ft and landed on her back.

Just two days before the accident she had qualified for youth trials with Brighton and Hove Albion.

Her parents had to give their daughter the agonising news that her promising footballing career was over just as it was starting.

Lauren will have to spend months in hospital recovering from operations to support her back after the fall left her with one shattered and three cracked vertebrae.

She had been sitting in a tree with her best friend as they played near her friend's family's boat at Chichester Marina when she slipped and fell, hitting a branch on the way down and flipping over to land on her back.

Lauren, of Offington Drive, Worthing, was flown to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester where doctors found she had suffered severe nerve damage to her spine.

Her parents Mike and Susan, who were not with their daughter when the accident happened, rushed to be at her bedside.

Lauren was transferred to Southampton General Hospital where doctors operated to insert two metal rods into her back to realign and support her spine.

But she has been left paralysed from the waist down and doctors expect her to remain that way for the rest of her life.

Mike said: “We were told by the doctors on the Saturday night that she would never walk again and we had to tell Lauren.

“It was heart-breaking and she was very upset but since then she has been an inspiration.

“Within four or five hours she was asking us questions about how we would travel and what kind of wheelchair she would have to have.

“We are season ticket holders at Reading FC and she even said to me maybe this will help me get better seats at the ground now.

“She has been amazing. She is a very strong and determined girl and has been very positive.

“We have nothing but admiration for her. She is dealing with this extremely well at the moment and it is important that we keep this positive attitude going.”

Just two days before the June 13 accident, keen footballer Lauren had successfully qualified for the final stages of Brighton and Hove Albion's youth trials.

A talented striker, Lauren had helped Worthing Minors to victory in last year's under-14s Challenge Cup for Sussex youth teams.

Michelle Lawrence, the director of the Women and Girls Centre of Excellence at Brighton and Hove Albion, said: “Lauren did really well at the trials and was delighted to progress to the second stage.

“We’re all devastated that she won’t get the chance now to fulfil her potential. Our thoughts are with her and her family.”

Lauren is not expected to be able to return home for several months.

After she leaves Southampton General Hospital she will be transferred to the specialist spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire for rehabilitation.

Her parents said they have nothing but admiration for the doctors and surgeons who had helped her.

They also thanked family and friends who had rallied round to help them since the accident and helped look after Lauren's younger brother, Christopher.

Susan said: “Our friends and family have been a great support to us and we are so grateful.

“We are so proud of Lauren, we always have been.

“She has always been a cheerful, happy girl and despite what has happened to her she has remained so. Even the doctors have said she has been an inspiration to them.”

Staff and pupils at Durrington High School, where Lauren is in Year 9, are organising fundraising events for her.

They are being helped by her former school The Vale, in Findon, Worthing High School and Davison High School in Worthing.

The Argus has told Lauren's parents that it will launch an appeal to raise money to pay for a wheelchair for her.

They said they were overwhelmed by the offer of help.

Leave your messages of support for Lauren and her family below.