Formby man an inspriation to us all.

Formby Bubble
Aug 15, 2016
2 min read

Bill Sands has been fighting Guillain Barré Syndrome/ CIDP since August 2013. He is now planning to another charity walk, this time wanting to walk a mile on his crutches.

The first indications that something was very wrong was a numbness that spread throughout his entire body. At first doctors were unsure as to what Bill was suffering from however diagnosis was finally made after he underwent a lumbar puncture.

He spent three months in hospital during 2013 and was sent home, after three months he was admitted back to hospital where he spent a further eleven months in 2014. He should never have left hospital in the first instance as this terrible condition was still attacking his body. His family have been caring for him constantly and are always around to give him love, support and encouragement, despite the fact that Bill’s wife Rosalind is not without her own health issues.

His family report that he is relentless in his fight against his illness and is always thinking of ways to raise money for the charity. CIDP is Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy is believed to be due to immune cells, which normally protect the body from foreign infection, incorrectly attacking the nerves in the body instead. As a result, the affected nerves fail to respond. This causes loss of movement in varying degrees in patients, but unfortunately Bill has ended up, after extended time in hospital and Intensive care, with limited use of his hands and legs. He had total muscle wastage, pneumonia and several other complications.

Prior to this bill had broken his back which took him two years to recover from after surgery. So his message is that you should NEVER GIVE UP, no matter what! Bill is still going through Physio which is helping him learn to walk and stand again, which he is in the early stages of being able to do. He can currently walk a small distance now on his crutches but is getting stronger daily. Apart from a week in march when Bill was back in hospital with complications and an infection he has been making steady progress towards his recovery. He now on his third mission to raise money for his charity after shaving his hair off last September to raise £160 for GAIN and his half mile walk earlier this year which raised approximately £600.