Mrs Vanessa Owen*

In December 1992 Nessie dislocated and fractured her spinal cord at L1 by slipping on some ice whilst working as a Chalet Girl in France. She spent five months ‘in rehab’ at the Spinal Unit in Salisbury where the INSPIRE team was a massive source of inspiration and encouragement to her. She will never forget the very real fear of permanent paralysis becoming a reality. However, unlike the majority she was lucky and made an almost complete recovery.

Having previously cooked for clients’ private dinner parties, she soon discovered this was too physical after her accident so for five years she had a lovely job working at ‘Books for Cooks’ in London. This gave her the idea of launching Cook to INSPIRE. For Nessie, life did slowly return to normal and in time she married her lovely and supportive husband David. They had two children William and Jemima (now 11 and 9) and live in rural Dorset where she is just embarking on a B&B enterprise. She became a Patron of the INSPIRE Foundation in March 2016.