Mum-of-two tells how she was left paralysed for life after swimming pool accident on cousin’s hen do in Magaluf

A MUM-OF-TWO has told how an accident in a hotel swimming pool on her cousin’s hen do left her paralysed for life.

Bonnie Lackey, 39, from Crawley, West Sussex, was partying in Magaluf, Spain, in May last year when, after mounting an inflatable rubber ring in the wave pool, she was swept to the shallow end and knocked off.

She recalled: “I landed face down in the water and couldn’t understand why my arms and legs weren’t doing what I wanted them to.

“I tried lifting my head out of the water but that didn’t work either. I held my breath and desperately waited for somebody to notice.

“It felt like an eternity, but it must have been less than a minute when I was pulled out of the water.

“I told them I couldn’t feel anything, and we all knew it was really serious.”

By this point, some of her fellow hens had rushed over and called an ambulance, shouting at the lifeguard on duty not to move Bonnie.

She was stretchered to a medical room before an ambulance took her to a local hospital.

“The language barrier was a real problem,” Bonnie explained.

“And I didn’t know exactly what was wrong with me or if my paralysis was permanent.

“My cousins Rachel, Sarah, and Aunt Jackie visited me in intensive care. They were so pale and crying.

“I told them they had to continue the party without me. They didn’t want to, but I insisted – we hadn’t spent months planning this hen holiday for Rachel to all sit at the hotel and be miserable.”

Back home in West Sussex, Bonnie’s husband Terry, 42, a plumber, left their boys Freddie, 11, and Tommy, 18, with relatives and boarded the first flight to Magaluf with Bonnie’s sister Faye Wright.

Bonnie recalled: “When I saw their faces, it was the biggest moment of relief ever.

“I’d felt so lonely in the hospital and unsure of what the future held. I wanted to wrap my arms around them but of course, I couldn’t.

“Instead, Terry gave me a hug and tried his best to put on a brave face.”

Bonnie was transferred to a second hospital for surgery to have a metal brace screwed into her skull for traction to her neck.

By now, the bride and hens had flown home, but it was clear that Bonnie wasn’t going to make Rachel’s wedding.

A week later, Bonnie was flown home by private air ambulance and taken to Surrey Hospital where doctors took X-rays and CT scans.

She was then transferred to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, in Stanmore, Middlesex, where she finally discovered what had happened.

When Bonnie had fallen off the rubber ring, she’d broken three bones in her neck and seriously damaged her spinal cord. Her paralysis was permanent.

“I’m quite level-headed and calm under pressure,’ Bonnie said.

“So instead of focusing on what I could no longer do, I looked at what I could do.

“I worked really hard with my occupational therapist to get strong enough to go to my sister Faye’s wedding.

“I kept my plans a secret until Faye came to tell me she was cancelling everything because she couldn’t bear to go ahead without me.

“I had to let her in on my plan, and she was thrilled. We both agreed that, besides Terry and Mark, nobody else would know.

Two weeks later, a team of nurses helped Bonnie into her floor-length bridesmaid dress and a specially adapted car took her to Hartfield Manor in Betchworth, Surrey, for the big day.

She was snuck in through the back so none of the guests twigged.

Once the guests were inside the ceremony room for the service and the doors were closed, Bonnie was wheeled out and positioned behind them.

“That’s when Faye and I first saw each other,” she recalled.

“We had only a matter of seconds together before the next part of our plan. She looked incredible but all she kept saying was how proud she was of me.”

The doors were flung open and 70 astonished guests, including the girls’ mum Sally Roberts and dad Glenn Turner, watched as Bonnie used the side of her left hand to direct her electric wheelchair down the aisle ahead of her sister.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” she said.

“It was a brilliant day and afterwards, we all celebrated with a big reception dinner and party, but I found it exhausting.

“I became out of breath talking to people and by 8pm, I had to go back to hospital. I was so wiped out, I slept for two days.”

Now, eight months after the accident that changed her life, Bonnie is finally back home, but her life will never be the same.

She needs 24/7 care and the three-bedroom home she shares with Terry and their children needs £60,000 of work to make it accessible.

Bonnie said: “I’m sleeping in the lounge and can’t get to the bathroom upstairs.

“My sister has started a JustGiving page - we’ve raised almost £20,000 so far and we’ve been overwhelmed by the public’s generosity.”

She added: “I wish I’d never got in that wave pool, but I can’t change that. I can only hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else, but I worry that it will.

“Three weeks after my accident, I found out the hotel was still putting rubber rings for guests to use in the wave pool.

“I’ve hired a legal team to take action. I don’t want anyone to go through what I have.”

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Last year we told how a British student, 22, was left paralysed from the neck down after smashing his head into rocks while diving into a Swedish lake.