Holly Martin has always been an active and sociable teenager whose love of the outdoors shines through everything she does – particularly, her love of horse riding.
However, all that was put on hold in 2021 when she was involved in a major riding accident, which left her with a traumatic brain injury.
Since then, Helen – whose husband, Adam, is an on-call firefighter with Cornwall FRS – has dedicated herself to helping Holly regain as much independence and mobility as possible, while learning to live with a disability. Here, she shares how we’ve supported them in the years since…
“Adam had been very unwell around two years before Holly’s accident. He had to have emergency heart surgery, which meant he was off work for months, and the charity offered us some financial support at the time,” says Helen.
“It meant that we knew we could shout if we needed you in the future, which as it turned out, was very useful.
“On the 12th of April, 2021, Holly had a riding accident at home which left her with a severe traumatic brain injury,” says Helen.
“She spent over a year in Bristol Children’s Hospital, where she received intensive rehab, and we had support from the charity financially at the time which was a huge help.
“We live four hours away, so we took it in turns to stay up there and that had an impact on our work – especially as Adam is a self-employed builder, as well as being an on-call firefighter.
“It was quite a challenging time, to put it mildly, so the support was a huge help.”
She adds: “The children’s hospital were amazing because they had counsellors on all the wards, so we had quite a lot of support.
“Holly came out of hospital in May 2022 and we’d made adaptations to the house, along with getting some carers, to support her.”
Helen stayed in touch with us once Holly was home and enquired about rehabilitation support we may be able to offer.
“I was actually looking at support for young carers, for my son, and saw an article on Fire Fighters Charity’s website about a young girl who’s wheelchair-bound and had had support from you,” she says.
“We got in touch around December 2023 and were told Holly was eligible for some support at a centre.
“We were offered a stay at Harcombe House, in one of the self-catered bungalows so all of us could go up together. Adam and my son George went home after the weekend, and I stayed for the week with Holly.
“It was a chance for some much-needed respite and, as it happens, Adam’s family live in the village so we had the opportunity to catch up with them too which was lovely.
“The physios were amazing, they had a great understanding of neuro disability which is rare. They’d been in touch with Holly’s physios at home too, so it all joined up.
“We used the pool and hydro pool, and the gym was amazing! Compared to the broom cupboard we use at home it was incredible. All the staff were amazing and we used the café too.”
Helen adds: “We discovered the arts and crafts room on the last visit. Holly is incredibly arty so we used it to paint in our time off from physio. It was lovely to meet the art teacher too. She joined us for a first ‘session’ but then gave us free access to use the space as we needed for the rest of the week.
“Our next visit coincides, coincidentally, with Adam’s dad’s 70th birthday. It’s so wonderful to know we can celebrate with him without the worry of finding accessible accommodation. That isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
Helen now hopes, by sharing hers and Holly’s story, she’ll spread the word about the support available to firefighting families.
“I’ve already been spreading the word about the charity to a lot of the other partners of Adam’s colleagues,” she adds.
“There’s quite a range of needs in that service, so it’d be great if I can help to persuade some of them to get in touch too.”
You can find out more about support for families here:
If you feel you’d benefit from our health and wellbeing support, you can call our Support Line on 0800 389 8820, make an enquiry online or visit the ‘Access Support’ tab in My Fire Fighters Charity.
And remember – if you’re feeling suicidal, you can call our Crisis Line 24 hours a day on 0300 373 0896.