Fundraiser to help paralysed Shropshire Moto X rider get pioneering treatment abroad

Conner Parry was a promising rider, just starting out on his career when disaster struck. Conner from Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, was 21 when he was involved in a horrific accident which severed his spinal column leaving him paralysed from the chest down.

Now a fundraiser is being organised which will go towards sending him to Colombia for treatment.

Family friend Lorraine Kaura, who has known Conner since he was five, said: "Conner's love of motorbikes started at a very early age when he used to go and watch his dad in Classic Moto X racing.

"By the age of 17 he quickly went through the ranks and was racing alongside experts.

"After a hard winter's training and having secured six sponsors to take him through the season with the hope of racing in Europe, 2016 was going to be Conner's year.

"So on February 21 he prepared for his day of racing just like he had hundreds of times before."

But as Conner made his way along the course he had a terrible accident which left his lying unconscious on the track.

Lorraine said: "The Air Ambulance responded immediately and he was flown to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. It turned out he had fractured five vertebrae, one of which had burst and severed his spinal column, leaving him paralysed from the chest down.

"After nine hours of surgery and an eight-day stay in hospital, Conner was flown to The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital in Oswestry where he underwent 13 weeks of intensive therapy."

Since the accident he has done extensive research into stem cell treatments which may lead him to fulfilling his dream of walking again.

But the treatment is not available in the UK and so his friends and family have organised a number of fundraising events to raise the money needed to make it possible for him to travel abroad where the radical surgery is carried out.

Funds have already been secured to fund his first set of stem cell treatment. Now they are looking to raise the £20,000 needed for a second round.

Lorraine said: "If anyone has the courage, tenacity and willpower to beat the odds and prove the specialists wrong, Conner has. Our aim is to raise enough money to send him for his second course of stem cell treatment and get him mobile again."

The black tie ball will be held at the Albright Hussey Hotel, Ellesmere Road on March 31, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets, which will include a sit down three-course dinner, auction of products and services including lunch and a tour at The House of Commons,entertainment from The Mimic Men, who performed on Britain's Got Talent, and a video of Conner's treatment, cost £65 per person or £600 for a table of 10.

Tickets can be bought by emailing kauraconsultancy@gmail.com or contacting Lorraine on 07908 134468.