Nicolas Bionic legs

Hi I'm Nicola

I was born 3 months early in 1975. I spent the first few months of my life in an incubator and I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the intensive care I had.


It took some time to learn to walk and apparently doctors predicted that I might not achieve this milestone at all.
Fortunately,  my parents took me home and made sure I understood how to get on with it, to work hard and I had just about  as much access to life as everyone else.

Whilst I certainly had lots of struggles with walking running and  going to new places I didn't let my difficulties stop me.

 Cerebral palsy is caused by a neurological injury at, or just after birth.  it is much more likely to occur in premature babies. My type of cerebral palsy is called spastic diplegia.

This affects predominantly my legs on both sides and to a lesser extent my arms, which have started to be affected as I've grown older.
Spasticity is where messages from the brain tell my muscles to be too tight and too short; this causes deformity in my feet and weakness in my lower limbs. I've always walked with my knees turning inwards due to problems with the muscles in my knees.

I think the reason I was never told I had cerebral palsy back then when I was growing up is that the doctors probably thought I didn't need to know.

Now the condition  is much worse and one day, after a terrifying time of falling in roads I decided I needed to go back to the doctors.

I was so taken aback to be told that I had cerebral palsy and wondered at first if the orthopaedic surgeon had got me mixed up with another patient.

I always knew that I had a disability, but I wasn't sure of the name. After I had gathered myself a little, I began to do some research.

I came across inspirational disabled people on Instagram and Facebook who helped me understand the treatment that might be available. I've added some videos below showing some of these courageous people that have found the Exosym.




This pioneering, game changing, revolutionary piece of engineering could prevent me from having further costly operations on the NHS. Though I have done very well going to university, getting a master’s degree and studying hard in my chosen profession of  therapy things haven't been easy and toll on my body is growing.

I've had lots of operations over the years but it's getting harder and harder to address these things surgically because my muscles have been operated on and in the words of the surgeon, are bowstring tight.


The wonderful thing about the Exosym is that it is not invasive, it will allow me to walk more normally. 

I know I will always have cerebral palsy and I don't expect to be cured but I'm hoping for a sense of being able to walk without fear to be able to cross a road without thinking that I might fall in front of traffic. To be able to go to the shops walk around and look at things without thinking I'm going to fall. I can't tell you what that would mean to me.

Even if you just donated £5, I would be enormously grateful. This would enable me to keep giving back to my community in Yorkshire which is what I want to be able to do

Each leg costs around $10,000 and this is where I need a little bit of your help. Im saving, but it's a heck of a lot to find on my own. If you could help just a little bit that would be amazing. I promise I will do my part and have already started training for it. Follow me on Instagram at nicolaclairestuff to check out my progress! 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read!