John and his wife Angela have been supporting the charity since 2011. Based in Yorkshire, the nsif champions have held several popular fundraisers over the years, including race nights, competitions, running events, fashion shows and cycling challenges as well as being the patrons behind the nsif Hull and East Riding branch.
Imagine being told your son would never be able to walk again and would be confined to a wheelchair for life. Unfortunately for Angela, John and their family, this was the reality they were faced with.
Steven, Angela and John’s son had always been an all‑rounder in sports and had previously completed trials for Hull City. One day, at age 15, he went to bed with mild backache and woke the next morning paralysed from the chest down, the cause later confirmed as a viral infection. For Angela and John’s family, it felt as if their whole world had been torn apart.
Undeterred by being told such terrible news, they never gave up hope and promised Steven they would do all that they could for him to walk again. They set about researching possible cures for spinal injury. Meanwhile, the family sourced privately; physiotherapy, podiatry, acupuncture and reflexology and Steven worked extremely hard with daily exercises and is now able to walk short distances with walking sticks. After a lot of dead ends, they eventually found us, the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, a small charity supporting promising research into spinal cord injury.
After visiting the London branch of the charity they set about straightaway to establish a Hull and East Riding branch of NSIF. Since then, Angela and her family have raised an astonishing £103,000 through various fundraising events.