Kingsley Napley and spinal cord injury charity Back Up

The Kingsley Napley Medical Negligence and Personal Injury Team are specialists in legal claims relating to spinal cord injuries and understand the challenges that arise for spinal cord injured individuals and their families and the importance of getting the right help and support. As a result, we are proud to support the Family Team at spinal cord injury charity Back Up. The Family Team provide bespoke support to loved ones of spinal cord injured individuals.

The case study below shows the impact that the Back Up Family Team have. You can also find out more here - Back Up Spinal Cord Injury Charity.

Case study

My name is Sarah and I am Tom’s Mum. Tom was 28 at the beginning of this journey - in a full time job which he loved. One of his hobbies was walking and he is a dedicated Pokémon Go user.

Our story began in April 2023 when we were on holiday in Exmouth. Tom had a pain in his side which a doctor and 2 others said was a pulled muscle. Within 4 days he could not walk. Tom had a mass on his spine which was Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma - it was surgically removed and a spinal compression and plate put in his spine. The first three weeks he was mostly in ICU being monitored while he healed from surgery.

He was transferred to Bristol Oncology where he underwent, initially, 6 rounds of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite do what it needed as a tumour started to re-grow so Tom was put forward for some amazing carT treatment. In simple terms his blood was taken and sent to America to be modified - the T cells changed to fight cancer and then he was given it back. This is a brutal process physically and mentally as the side effects are dreadful - the less said about that the better. Ironically if the side effects are dreadful that’s good and shows the treatment is working and a PET scan 28 days after transplant showed that Tom was in remission.

At the beginning of January 2024 Tom was transferred to Salisbury Spinal Cord Injury Centre to start some rehabilitation. This was an upheaval for the whole family as we are based in Bristol - but thankfully we had a caravan which we sited just outside Salisbury so my husband and I could stay close to Tom along with our dog who played a massive part of Tom’s journey.

It was at Salisbury whilst waiting to go into the gym with Tom that I noticed a Back-Up poster offering support for spinal patients and their families. At this point I was pretty broken - we had had 10 months fighting cancer and now we had the reality that Tom wouldn’t walk again and our lives would never be the same, and I was struggling.

I reached out to Back-Up asking if they could give me some help so that I in turn could help the rest of the family. My first call was with Nicole who knew exactly what I was going through, she just let me talk - say out loud all the things I was feeling without judgement, just listened - it was liberating to say the least. To know that all the things I was feeling were actually pretty normal but they were there for me as a Mum to help me come to terms with it all. We had several sessions after that with Dom - the voice of an angel I called him, just so reassuring and again someone who understood how not only I but the rest of my family were feeling. He spoke to Dan, Tom’s younger brother, who was in total denial of the situation and I am sure that it was the catalyst of his coming to terms with everything.

At Salisbury I was able to take part in an Information Day for Friends & Family. I was pretty nervous, but it was brilliant – again, some of the many questions I had answered about skin care, bowel and bladder management and how to cope at home. We were given a goodie bag - everyone loves a goodie bag, and it was an opportunity to meet other family members in the same boat as me. Some of whom I have stayed in touch with - priceless.

Tom was discharged from Salisbury in January 2025 home to our adapted family home - how we got to that stage is another story but it was fabulous to have all my family under the same roof. It brought new challenges and again I reached out to Back-Up and asked if it was possible for me to have a mentor. Mandy was matched with me as someone who had a similar story and she was great - I called her my “Gift from the Gods” again, she understood exactly what I was going through and helped enormously.

Back-Up has been there for me throughout our journey. I try and join in the family lounge which happens by zoom fortnightly where you hear others’ experiences, highs and lows, but I have learned so much and I know I will continue to do so. Back-Up offer so much for spinal patients in so many forms. I am hoping Tom will be able to take part in some of their courses as he gains strength and confidence and then perhaps one day we will be able to help others on their journey the way we have been helped on ours."