Jade Almond, 16, has refused to let her injuries get her down and hopes to be a football coach or PE teacher one day
BEAMING with pride, schoolgirl Jade Almond runs upstairs for the first time since a bang on the head left her unable to walk.
The joyful clip, shot in February, shows Jade celebrating her final day of physio after seven agonising months of rehab.
Yet just hours after the film was taken, the plucky teen was involved in a car crash that left her paralysed AGAIN.
Even worse, Jade, 16, now can’t move her right arm, go to the loo or even sit up unaided - and feels she has been left with “the strength of a newborn baby”.
She explains: “I am heartbroken. I worked so hard to get on my feet again - and in just seconds I’m back to where I started. You couldn’t make it up.”
Jade, from Abram, Greater Manchester, was being driven with friends to her first dance class since recovery by mum Michelle when disaster struck.
A woman, fumbling in her footwell for dropped popcorn, smashed into the back of the Almonds’ car on the M60 and Jade banged her head.
She remembers: “Until that moment, I was so happy and overwhelmed at what I’d achieved.
“I was laughing with my mates, so excited that we’d finally be dancing together again.
“Then there was a huge crunch and I shot forward and back in my seat. Looking up, my mate next to me had blood running down her head.
“She was panicking so I reached forward to hug her but couldn’t raise my right arm.
“When I tried to get out of the car and stand, my legs gave way beneath me. I thought: “Oh God no...this can’t be happening again.”
The former Wigan Athletic Ladies goalkeeper was at a summer school for future leaders last July when she fell backwards on her chair and hit her head on a door handle.
Within seconds she felt dizzy and dazed, and within two hours she could hardly stand.
Stumbling into Manchester Royal Infirmary on a Saturday night, Jade was at first dismissed as a drunk teen and sent home without tests.
She says: “It was awful. I was seriously ill but we felt powerless to get help - my poor mum had to carry me back to the car.”
Beside herself with worry, Michelle drove straight to Salford Royal but CT and MRI scans came back blank.
Baffled doctors diagnosed Jade with FND (functional neurological disorder) and told her to go home and wait.
Jade was dumbstruck when they said the condition might take two years to go away - but she wasn’t about to give up.
She says: “I thought, no way am I wasting two years of my life in a wheelchair. I’m going to fight this.”
When funding proved difficult because of Jade’s age, the family set up a Go Fund Me page.
The brave youngster then began a gruelling battle to regain her health.
She says: “I could walk short distances but I still had this tremor in my leg and my ankle used to roll over.
“I was about to start college but I was on crutches and exhausted all the time. I fell over a lot too.
“Yet after just a few sessions of physio I noticed an improvement. The tremor would be smaller and my ankle would be flat.
“The more I pushed through the pain, the better I got. I just knew I had to carry on - and work even harder.”
The family would fundraise for a month or two and then send Jade back for another three or four days in rehab.
In total, her private treatment cost the family £14,500 but it was worth every penny.
Over seven months, Jade, who hopes to be a football coach or PE teacher, slowly learned to walk with confidence again.
Refusing to let her illness get her down, she drew strength from friends and her devoted family.
Boyfriend Tom - her best friend since the age of 11 - also rarely left her side.
She has needed their love even more since that fateful, cruel day in February.
“I was heartbroken when I couldn’t feel my legs after the crash,” she remembers.
“After all I’d been through - and on what had been such a triumphant day too.
“Seeing all that effort go down the drain was crushing. And now it’s in my whole body.
“I can’t move my right arm or legs and my left arm is starting to go too.
“My core is not working so I fall out of chairs or to the side if I’m not helped.
“I’m catheterised too as I can’t control going to the loo when I have no feeling below the waist.
“I need help with everything - it’s just like being a baby again.”
The female driver who hit Jade’s family car will face no charges for the accident.
Yet, amazingly, Jade refuses to be bitter. She says: “I’m not angry, just annoyed.
“It doesn’t take a genius to know that you don’t take your eyes off the road on a motorway!”
There are times when even Jade’s spirit is daunted though.
“I do cry and get disheartened - there were so many things I wanted to do this summer.
“My mates and I were going hiking in the Lake District but I can’t now.
“I was going to compete in a local version of Ninja Warrior but I can’t even feed myself.
“And I was so excited to get Spice Girls tickets but I guess I’ll have to miss that too.
“Of course I’m gutted - but that’s not going to get me better.”
Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) is a common and disabling cause of neurological symptoms.
People with FND can experience a wide variety of symptoms including:
(Information from registered charity FND Action)
To make her struggle all the harder, Jade has also been refused NHS admittance for full-time physio treatment as she is 16 - neither eligible for children’s rehab or adult centres.
Yet the longer she spends without it, the harder she feels she will be to cure.
So it’s back to the Go Fund Me page - and the stakes have never been higher.
Former NHS worker Michelle, 41, has been overwhelmed at how Jade’s friends have rallied to help though.
“It’s been incredible,” she says. “Her dance class is doing a showcase to raise money, her old school are running charity events and people are being sponsored to do fun runs and marathons in her name.
“I’m taking my cue in all this from Jade - her incredible spirit never keeps her down for long.
“In quiet moments, I’m devastated for her. But there’s no point giving up, not when we’ve seen how well she can recover.”
Jade and Michelle are clearly devoted to one another. And Jade’s boyfriend, Tom, is at the hospital almost as much as Mum.
Jade says: “Tom has been amazing. He stays all day and helps me through my exercises. He even helps me eat.
“People are angry for me - at how unfair it seems - but I need to stay positive.
“I’m determined to get back to the sports I love and I’m ready to put the hard work in to get there.
“I’ve beaten this once - I can do it again.”
You can donate to Jade's rehab costs at
In other real life stories, we told the tale of a woman who heard her family say goodbye and her last rites being read as she lay terrified and helpless in a coma.
There's also this heartbreaking tale of endless agony as a woman watched in agony as her twin boys died after NINE rounds of IVF and FOUR miscarriages but she is determined not to give up on motherhood.
