“A freak accident hanging up the laundry left me in a wheelchair and got us into debt”

A Kirklees family’s lives were thrown into disarray when breadwinner dad David suffered a ‘freak accident’ while hanging out the laundry.

Alison and David Smith, both 50, from Emley in Denby Dale, parents of three, spoke of how their lives were thrown into turmoil when David pulled a muscle in his neck in while doing housework. The injury eventually put David in a wheelchair after his brain went into a state of panic, causing an extreme neurological condition.

In addition, the couple were overwhelmed with bills for their house and cars after former mechanical production engineer David fell ill and was eventually made redundant, plunging them into thousands of pounds worth of debt.

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“It just became unmanageable,” David said, speaking about the incident at an event for Christians Against Poverty, a charity that helps people become debt-free.

“I hung laundry on a washing line. I was doing that and I pulled a muscle in my neck. It was a freak accident. I was worried it might be a stroke, and all those worries were compounded in his brain, making him wonder what was wrong with him.”

Alison added: “He was under a lot of stress at the time with his mum being ill and it stopped his brain from recognizing that his body could get better. It is very unusual. He woke up one morning and couldn’t move, it was very, very scary.

“Now, you don’t know what it’s going to be like from day to day. You can wake up and have a good day or you can’t wake up the next day, so it’s totally and utterly unpredictable, the disease.”

The original accident happened 14 years ago, but the impact I still feel today. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with David for four years. It turns out he has a functional neurological disorder (FMD), causing problems with the way his brain sends signals to the rest of his body, making him very unsteady on his feet and unable to move for days.

Alison, who spends most of her time looking after her daughter who has severe autism, said: “I went from a full-time salary to nothing really. We had terrible problems, we had it with our daughter, with David and our son was only about three years old.”

After many years, the couple’s life is now debt free. Partly thanks to the Christian Aid Against Poverty (CAP) charity. CAP provides debt help case management to people who are struggling, with 2,367 clients across the UK. It recently published a report, with 505 respondents, which found that 1 in 7 skipped meals and 2 in 10 remained without heating their home on a daily basis. Almost 3 in 5 have borrowed money to pay for food, clothing and other living costs.

It also found that nearly 3 in 5 of new customers with debt had incomes below the poverty line. And sixty percent of survey respondents had to borrow money to pay household bills.

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