Liam

Liam was a secondary school teacher when his health collapsed without warning. He was taken to hospital acutely ill and received a diagnosis of HIV. The neurological impact had been severe. When he arrived at Mildmay's Inpatient Unit he could not walk, could not move his neck, and any movement at all brought on intense dizziness. He was completely bed-bound.

What followed was a slow, painstaking process of recovery. Mildmay's multidisciplinary team, physiotherapists, nurses, and specialist clinicians working together, began the work of rebuilding what the illness had taken from him.

Physiotherapy gradually restored strength to muscles that had stopped functioning. Week by week, Liam relearned things most people never have to think about: how to sit up, how to stand, how to walk, how to manage a flight of stairs.

Three months after arriving unable to move, he went home.

Recovery continued after discharge through Mildmay's Day Services, which supported his independence and helped consolidate the progress made as an inpatient. He used the gym regularly and walked at three miles per hour on the treadmill - a target that would have been unimaginable on the day he was admitted.

Liam now offers something that no clinical intervention can provide: living proof that recovery is possible. He is a source of inspiration to patients who are at the beginning of their own journey. People who may be in the position he was in not long ago, wondering if they will ever walk again.