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When 44-year-old Hilary Lister was in her late 20s, she began to lose the feeling in her limbs and her ability to use them. Her doctors diagnosed her with reflex sympathy dystrophy, a disorder caused by abnormal impulses sent from the brain through the body.
Lister’s doctors tried to operate on her to stop the progression of the disease, but it failed. By the age of 29, Lister had lost the use of her hands and was declared a quadriplegic.
Instead of letting her disability slow her down, Lister was only further motivated to accomplish her goals.
In 2005, Lister was nominated as the Sports Personality of the Year for her accomplishments in sailing.
Just four years later, in 2009, Lister became the first female quadriplegic to sail around the UK by herself. The entire journey took 14 months and occurred in 40 stages, all of which Lister navigated and directed herself by controlling her boat with straws connected to her mouth.
About a year ago, however, in September 2015, Lister underwent a surgery where doctors inserted an implant into her body, one that would provide her pain relief from phantom sensation in her limbs.
But the surgery didn’t just relieve pain – the surgery ended up allowing Lister to feel “pins and needles in both of [her] arms and [her] left leg and twitches where [she’d] never had anything before.”
“It was like magic,” she recalled.
Despite Lister’s excitement over her apparent progress, she avoided sharing this news with her friends and family because she was too nervous that it was just a fleeting experience. She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up about her regaining the use of her limbs.
Even now, though the pins and needles sensation have lingered, Lister is still anxious about what the future will hold.
“Over three-and-a-half months I had varying amounts of movement,” she recalled. “I was able to do things I had only dreamt of, but then about four weeks ago I lost all feeling again completely… I don’t know what will happen. I’m terrified it won’t work because I expect that’s more likely.”
You can keep up with her news here.
