Actress Kim Taylforth has revealed she researched ending her life at Dignitas after being struck down with a rare condition which caused paralysis and incontinence at the age of 59.
Kim, now 62, from Bedfordshire, who is the sister of EastEnders star Gillian and is known for playing Marilyn Fenner in ITV's Bad Girls, was diagnosed with transverse myelitis after collapsing at home in August 2017.
The condition, which causes inflammation of the spinal cord, is incurable, and former police officer Kim faced a long battle to get back on her feet which had a devastating impact on her mental health.
A stint at a police rehabilitation unit helped Kim learn to walk again, but she still had little control over her bladder.
Actress Kim Taylforth (pictured left with sister Gillian) has revealed she researched ending her life at Dignitas after being struck down with a rare condition which caused paralysis and incontinence at the age of 59
Kim, pictured as Marilyn Fenner in ITV's Bad Girls, was a police officer before becoming an actress
But after discovering a revolutionary vibrating chair, Kim claims her incontinence was cured, leaving her feeling like a 'new woman'.
Now, she tells FEMAIL, she's looking forward to life again rather than thinking about ending it.
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ShareSpeaking about the dark place she found herself in after the illness took hold, Kim admitted: 'The effect on my mental health was so serious that I became chronically depressed.
'I started planning to take my own life, even researching Dignitas.'
Former police officer Kim faced a long battle to get back on her feet which had a devastating impact on her mental health
Before the onset of transverse myelitis, Kim told how she led a fit and healthy lifestyle.
'I did aerobics classes most days and military boot camp twice a week and had a size 10 figure,' she explained.
'But all that changed in an instant on Sunday 13 August when I went out for lunch with my sister Debbie and then we came back to my garden for a glass of wine and a chat in the sunshine.
Before the onset of transverse myelitis, Kim - who regularly performs in pantomimes, pictured - told how she led a fit and healthy lifestyle
'After she left I was loading the dishwasher and my legs felt funny and numb and suddenly I fell to the floor.
'I lay there paralysed from the waist down. Thankfully my son was in the house so he helped me onto a chair and I sat there with my legs up assuming I'd pinched a nerve in my back.'
What is transverse myelitis?
The term myelitis refers to inflammation of the spinal cord, transverse refers to the pattern of changes in sensation.
Transverse myelitis is the broad name of the disease, and there are various sub-types.
Causes of the condition include infections, sometimes caused by bacteria in raw foods, immune system disorders, and other disorders that may damage or destroy myelin, the fatty white insulating substance that covers nerve cell fibers.
Inflammation within the spinal cord interrupts communications between nerve fibers in the spinal cord and the rest of the body, affecting sensation and nerve signaling below the injury.
That can lead to paralysis.
Condition can affect people of any age, gender, or race. It does not appear to be genetic or run in families.
Some people recover from transverse myelitis with minor or no long-term problems, but most suffer permanent impairments that affect their ability to perform ordinary tasks of daily living.
There is no cure for the disease.
<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/femail/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->AdvertisementWhen after two hours she was still unable to move her big toe, Kim called an ambulance and was rushed to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
There she underwent a full body and brain scan and was catheterised because the paralysis meant she had lost control of her bladder.
'Doctors did test after test, baffled as to what had caused this,' Kim recalled. 'Eventually the neurologist said there was nothing on my spine that needed surgery, and then after two long weeks I was diagnosed with an extremely rare condition called transverse myelitis.
I listened as they explained that myelin is the soft jelly around the spinal cord that protects it from bumps, and "itis" means inflammation of. Mine was inflammation of the myelic sheaf across the spine.'
Kim was told only 300 people a year in England have the condition and doctors didn't know why she had got it - and there was no way of treating it.
'All I could do was try to learn to move my legs again and try and get back on my feet,' she said.
'It was no mean feat. To begin with I lay in bed practicing moving my toes, then my legs.'
While she was recovering, Kim told how an old friend from the police called Terry, whom she'd recently reconnected with, asked to come and visit her.
'I explained that I was in a bad way but he came anyway and he began visiting regularly,' she said.
'By the time I came home in a wheelchair five weeks later we were an item. My sister joked, "You must be the only person who goes into hospital paralysed and comes out with a boyfriend!"
'Terry's support was invaluable but the truth was I didn't know if I would ever walk again and I was scared but determined to get my life back.'
Each day Kim used a zimmer frame to increase her steps - but although she was no longer catheterised she still had to wear a sanitary pad.
'In the night I was up at least three times to go to the toilet,' she recalled. 'It was embarrassing and depressing.
Being an ex-police officer meant Kim was allowed to go to the police rehabilitation unit at Flint Heath and thanks to the 'incredible support' she received there she began to walk on crutches and then with just one crutch (pictured)
While she was recovering, Kim connected with an old colleague who became her boyfriend - and the couple are now living together
'Thankfully being an ex-police officer meant that I was allowed to go to the police rehabilitation unit at Flint Heath and thanks to the incredible support I received there I began to walk on crutches and then with just one crutch.
'Still though the embarrassing leaks were debilitating; I couldn't go for long distances in case I needed the toilet and if I ever went anywhere I had to plan my route around toilet stops.'
It was at this point that Kim visited Dr Shirin Lakhani at the Cranley Clinic in London.
How does the Emsella Chair work?
The Emsella Chair works by generating electromagnetic fields from a coil positioned in the seat
'During the procedure, patients sit on the chair fully clothed,' says Dr Shirin Lakhani.
'The electromagnetic fields stimulate the movement nerves in the pelvic floor, causing the muscles to contract and release hundreds of times a minute.
'Patients experience 11,400 contractions in a 28-minute session. The treatment also targets the entire pelvic floor by bypassing the neurones in the brain and so enables to patient to use 100 per cent of the muscle rather than the 40 per cent which can be activated by consciously tensing.'
<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/femail/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_2 - ->Advertisement'She told me about a revolutionary treatment called the Emsella that can cure incontinence without you even needing to take your clothes off,' she explained.
The Emsella Chair works by generating electromagnetic fields from a coil positioned in the seat.
In June this year, Kim had her first of six 30-minute sessions.
'As I sat on the chair fully clothed I relaxed and chatted to my sister as the chair vibrated and stimulated my nerves. It wasn't painful at all,' she recalled.
'I had two treatments a week and when I got home after the fourth treatment I realised something – I wasn't leaking any more!
'That night I slept through the night without having to wake for a wee for the first time since the accident too.
'I felt like a new woman.
'The results were apparent within the first week of treatment and have continued to improve since.
'And now the incontinence has been cured and my life has been totally transformed.
'Words can't describe how much more positive and confident I feel, so much so that I've just got an acting part to play the fairy godmother in a panto in December, something I never would have dreamed possible before my treatment.'
Now Kim is registered disabled but can walk with a stick and just about manage to walk without one for small distances.
She added: 'Terry and I have been living together since lockdown and I'm feeling happier and more positive than I have done in months.'
For more information visit www.cranleyclinic.com
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