North Yorkshire rider left paralysed after accident supports fundraiser for the air ambulance service which rescued her

Tara Howell, 49, was riding her horse Victor near her family home, near Helmsley, when she was thrown off and landed on her head, with the impact breaking her neck.

She said: “I landed awkwardly, breaking my neck at C6/7, dislocating 13 vertebrae and bending my spinal cord into an ‘S’ shape. I heard my neck snap and I was instantly paralysed from the chest down. I lay in the field for five and half hours waiting to be found and owe my discovery to Victor.”

Victor was grazing beside Ms Howell when he was spotted by a passing horse rider who came to investigate and subsequently found Ms Howell lying on the ground and called the emergency services.

She added: “Stranded as I was in the middle of nowhere, it was impossible to get an ambulance to me and I knew, from the moment I hit the ground, that the only way to get me out would be by helicopter.”

The Great North Air Ambulance Service flew to the scene and stabilised Ms Howell before airlifting her to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Following an eight hour operation to rebuild and stabilise her neck and two weeks in a medical coma, Ms Howell spent a month in high dependency before being transferred to Pinderfields spinal unit in Wakefield, where she remained for a further six months of physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

The incident occurred in July 2014 and left Ms Howell paralysed from the chest down, but she said her disability would not defeat her.

“I’ve always been a positive and determined person and that has helped me reframe my life in light of the restrictions now imposed upon me by my disability,” she added.

“I am very much a believer that, whilst you cannot control what happens to you, you absolutely can control how you react to it. Therefore it’s very important to always look at what you have rather than what you have lost.

“I’m only here and alive because of Great North Air Ambulance Service. I think they’re marvellous. I think most people know that the air ambulance is a superb service and staffed by incredible professionals who save lives every day. I think, probably, what they don’t know is that air ambulance services are charities and rely on donations to keep them going.”

To support the service, Ms Howell’s husband James Stewart has signed up to take part in the charity’s golf day, along with her father, artist David Howell, who is selling prints and cards of his paintings to raise money for charities including Great North Air Ambulance.

They have also sponsored a hole for £100 at the event, which is taking place on October 15 at Rockliffe Hall, near Darlington.

Places for the charity golf day are now sold out, but there are still opportunities to get involved, from being the headline event sponsor to sponsoring a hole on the course.

For those interested in becoming a sponsor, visit: gna.as/golf-sponsorship or call 01325 487 263.