Running Free : Breaking Out from the Locked-In Syndrome

Can you imagine being trapped in your own body? Able to see and hear everything going on around you but unable to move or speak - the blink of an eye your only way to communicate. Super-fit young mother-of-three Kate Allatt's life was torn apart when she became locked in her own body after suffering a massive stroke caused by a blood clot to her brainstem. Left totally paralysed and unable to speak, her chances of survival were 50/50 and doctors said she would never walk or talk again. She wanted to die. But her family and best friends willed her to live and with their love and support she channelled her sense of fun and fighting spirit into making a miracle recovery that amazed medical experts. Using a letter chart Kate blinked the words I will walk againA". Soon she was moving her thumb and communicating with the world via Facebook. Eight months later she said goodbye to nurses and walked out of hospital to return home and start training for her first run.

Kate Allatt is a 40-year-old mother of three and a keen fell runner. She lives in the UK with her husband Mark and three children India, 11, Harvey, 10 and Woody, six. Before her stroke she ran her own digital marketing company and was preparing an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Alison Stokes is a UK-based writer and journalist, who writes for national magazines in the UK and US and regional newspapers in Wales. For many years she was a features editor at Trinity Mirror's South Wales Echo. She also works as a part-time university lecturer in journalism and publishing manager.