Beauty therapist returns home from Thailand after 60ft balcony fall as family raise £75,000
22 January 2023, 18:16
A beauty therapist paralysed after falling 60ft from a balcony in Thailand has been flown home after her family raised £75,000.
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Maddi Neale-Shankster, 21, returned home to Coventry after the traumatic incident on December 31.
She also broke her back, suffered two collapsed lungs and had her ribs pierced in the horrific fall.
Mum Karen Moseley-Neale led an incredible effort to raise tens of thousands of pounds to fly her home with the medical equipment Maddi needed.
Karen told the BBC: "Before the accident, I was on FaceTime to Maddi.
"An hour later, we got a phone call from her partner and all I could hear is Maddi screaming in the background and the sirens blaring.
"Since the fall we are now coping with the realisation that potentially Maddi may never walk again."
The fundraiser needed to pay for "all hospital fees, repatriation and transportation costs back to the UK" managed to garner £76,000 in just over two weeks.
Her family wrote after closing the fundraiser: "If you still wanted to help out directly there are several fundraisers taking place in Coventry which will go towards Maddi’s rehabilitation and help towards her living costs until she is hopefully able to walk and return to work.
"Once again we can not thank you all so very much for your generosity, we truly never expected this to happen so quickly and we are forever going to be eternally grateful."
The Foreign Office said they were assisting the family of a British person after an incident in Thailand.
