A housebound 28-year-old hopes to raise £56,000 for spinal surgery to help her ditch the mobility scooter for a normal life.

Shona Smith, from Ballaugh, has set up a crowdfunding page so she and her parents can afford what is hoped to be life-changing surgery to her spine that is not possible through the NHS, but by neurosurgeons in Spain and the USA.

Doctors recently found that her spine is twisted and her top vertebrae are unstable and crushing the spinal cord and jugular vein, which is likely to be ’craniocervical instability’.

The discovery was made after MRI scans in London and a trip to see a specialist in Barcelona to help explain why Shona sleeps about 16 to 18 hours a day and has very limited amounts of energy when awake.

She said: ’I’d like to have enough energy to look after myself, make my own cups of tea, wash my hair without my parents’ help and become a reasonably functional human being.

’I’ve been so knocked down. I want to go out and enjoy everything. If things work out with the spinal fusion operation it will be like having a second lease at life. I would love to make my parents a cup of tea and walk my own dog. I’ve not done that in six years.

’To also not be asleep for days on end, that would be a miracle.’

Shona first became ill in 2012 while she was at the University of Lincoln studying forensic science. During her Easter holidays she was treated for a chest infection and was thought to have post viral fatigue. Six months later after blood tests confirming nothing out of the ordinary, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

’I stuck it out at university for as long as I could and came home for Easter in 2013. I’ve been home since,’ Shona said.

’I was halfway through my second year at university and I have no degree to show for, no career and no social life. During university I was going rock climbing and living an active lifestyle. I then went back to being basically a giant child.

’Last year I invested in a mobility scooter, which gives me a bit more time with my energy levels and more freedom.

’It’s taken a long time to come to terms with my condition. I’m a 28-year-old woman. It’s not how you plan your life to go.’

In 2017 she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a group of rare inherited conditions that affect connective tissue which support the skin, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, internal organs and bones.

Speaking to online friends from medical groups, Shona was given suggestions of having spinal fusion - a surgical procedure used to correct problems with the small bones in the spine.

’There was a woman in a wheelchair for three years who was walking within a week of having spinal fusion and is now walking up to 10,000 steps in a day,’ she said.

’Because of complications that EDS can cause there is no surgeon in the UK that can do the spinal fusion. If my spine is left untreated the next symptoms are paralysis and seizures.’

Eager to have the operation, she and her parents have set up the crowdfunding page which has raised nearly £400.

Her father, Don, said: ’There are limited options to raise the money other than sell the house. Having the operation would make a massive difference to our day to day lives.’

Shona added: ’I don’t have that money sitting around and my mum cannot work as she’s my full-time carer. All the financial burden has fallen on my parents over the last few years.’

For more information, search: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/giveshonaalife