Woman paralysed in car crash and who lost aunt and mum in three separate tragedies to spend Christmas in Sheffield hospital

A woman who lost her aunt, was left paralysed in a horror car smash and then lost her mother in three separate tragedies is to spend Christmas in hospital in Sheffield.
Nat Westmore will spend Christmas in Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.Nat Westmore will spend Christmas in Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.
Nat Westmore will spend Christmas in Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

Heartbroken Nat Westmore, 29, will miss Christmas with her three sons and instead will spend the festive season in the city's Northern General Hospital.

It is the latest in a long line of tragedies for Nat who is receiving treatment for spinal injuries and is expected to be in care until March next year.

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The Daily Mail reported how Nat was travelling home after toasting the memory of her aunt Penelope, who had been killed in a cycle crash, when she and her partner Shane were involved in a car accident that her paralysed from the neck down.

Just seven weeks later, Nat's mother Polly Westmore died of a heart attack at the age of 48 in a further blow to the devastated carer.

But brave Nat has vowed to "keep smiling" - despite spending Christmas without her three sons, Denli, Marley and Koby, who are staying with her former partner in Lincoln.

"I've lost my aunty, my mum and my legs,' Nat said. "But I'll keep smiling. I have to. Mum made me of strong stuff."

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Hours before she was involved in the horror collision on a dual carriageway outside Lincoln, Nat had learned that her aunt Penelope Brown, 35, had been killed.

It was left to her to break the news to her mother - and Pene's sister - Polly Westmore, a conversation Nat describes as 'so difficult'.

'We were both very upset, so I suggested to my partner Shane that we go for a drink to relax and to pay tribute,' she says.

But the couple were involved in a crash as they travelled back from a friend's house in the city, and though Shane escaped unscathed, Nat suffered a severe spinal cord injury called a C6 break.

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Now Nat is paralysed from the neck down with only limited feeling in her arms, and has been told she will never walk again.

Tragedy struck once again seven weeks after the crash, which took place on the night of September 23, when Nat's mum Polly died of a heart attack.

Doctors arranged for Nat to be taken to Lincoln County Hospital via ambulance so she could be there for her mum's final few hours, which she said was 'very special'.

Carer Nat, who is expected to remain at the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre in Sheffield until at least March 2017, was at home when she found out Pene had died while cycling in Lincoln on September 23 this year.

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It was that night at 9.30pm, as she and Shane travelled along the A46 near Thorpe-on-the-Hill, Lincolnshire, that disaster struck again when they were involved in the crash, which is being investigated by police.

The next day she underwent a six-hour operation to put a metal plate at the front of her neck, and two weeks later she had the same operation on the back of her neck.

Medics then broke the news that she'd suffered a C6 break – a snap to a specific vertebrae – and would never walk again.

'I was absolutely gutted,' she said.

'But at the end of the day, I've got to focus on doing what I can to get better.'