A disabled woman says having her van specially adapted so she can drive it herself, and having her wheelchair modified, would help give her back her freedom.

Sarah Lambert was paralysed following a freak accident eleven years ago and has been fighting ever since to regain her speech, movement and independence.

Her friend Sue Trafford, 64, an ambulance driver at Epsom Hospital, has now launched a £45,000-fundraiser for a new wheelchair (£25,000) and to have her van adapted so she can drive it with just her hands (£20,000).

Sarah became paralysed after a bear hug from a colleague at Kingston Hospital damaged her sciatic nerve and then, while off work injured, a fall down her stairs at home in 2006.

Surrey Comet:

She now has a standard NHS-issue wheelchair, but finds that it often breaks down and gets stuck in the mud – preventing her from walking her three-year-old miniature labradoodle Milo as much as she would like, and from performing everyday tasks such as going shopping.

The 38-year-old from Evelyn Way – about two miles from Epsom town centre – also has her own van, but relies on a carer who only looks after her for three hours a day for five hours a week.

“Not being on the road is the biggest loss, really – more than the use of my legs,” Sarah, a former driver in the Territorial Army and prison service, explained.

“My whole life is limited to being stuck at home.

“It holds me back from becoming independent and earning my own money.”

Sarah has struggled to find meaningful employment because “people only see the wheelchair,” she claims.

Surrey Comet:

She is now trying to establish herself as a distributor for health product pyramid scheme Forever Living. But to do so requires being mobile and able to meet people and network – something she currently struggles to do, and something she believes would be helped if she was able to drive herself, and not have to rely on others for transport.

She added: “I’m trying to be financially independent.”

Surrey Comet:

Sue Trafford, from Rowden Road, Ewell, set up a justgiving page to help her friend of more than seven years, but to date it has had only nine supporters pledging donations towards the £45,000 target.

“It would be really nice to give her the freedom,” Sue told the Epsom Guardian.

“If she’s going a long way, she’d still need someone with her, but if she was going into Epsom, she could do that.

“At the moment, she’s stuck.”

For more information, and to donate, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/suetrafford