Hello, BTN, my name's Tess.
(LAUGHS)
And I enjoy playing with my sister
and just doing normal teenager things.
So, on 24th November, last year,
I was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury,
and how I got a spinal cord injury
is because of an infection - MRSA.
And one day I was a happy, healthy girl,
and the next, I couldn't feel my legs.
The spinal cord is your main nervous system
in your spine that controls all your fingers, muscles,
ligaments, everything,
and it's also connected to your brain.
Your spinal cord is protected by your bones in your spine,
which is called the vertebrae.
I just thought I was getting a cold
and I had really, really bad back pain.
And I just thought it was normal.
And I was struggling to breathe.
I just had flushes, hot flushes.
I couldn't walk, I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand.
No heat packs, nothing would help my back pain.
My treatment for the infection was
I was on antibiotics
through a PICC line, which is like a drip in your vein,
and I was on that for six weeks.
And then I started being able...allowed to sit up
while I was on my drip.
And just learning to roll, sit...
..move my arms...
Um, yeah.
It was very confronting, scary.
Like, I didn't know what I was able to do
and what I wasn't able to do.
I...
It was just very hard and scary
'cause you don't know what your future was going to hold.
Whether you were going to get worse,
get better, you just didn't know.
And finding out that you will never be able to walk again
is really, really, really scary and hard,
because that's what you've known all your life is to have your legs
and to be able to do everything with your legs,
not just your arms.
So, I wasn't able to get on my bed by myself,
I wasn't able to get in the car,
I wasn't able to get on the couch by myself,
and doing that and achieving that
is a big accomplishment for me.
Because I...
When I was in hospital, I didn't think I could achieve it.
I didn't think I would be here, like, as I am today,
being fully independent.
I thought that I would always have to rely on someone.
But being able to do this now myself,
within only a couple of months,
is a big achievement for me.
It's a really big achievement.
And just being able to go outside, go down to the shop,
play with my sister, like,
it's a really, really big achievement for me,
and I'm so proud of myself for where I am today.
My advice to other kids is you can do anything
an able person can do,
don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
It might take you a little bit more time,
you might have to do it differently,
you might not walk,
but you still have a lot of things to give
and a lot of opportunities ahead of you.
Doors open for everyone every single day.