“I just want to stay out of hospital.”

That is what a cure means to Sophia. A way to stop her body going into crisis.

In June, a blocked catheter sent her body into panic. Her bladder filled, her blood pressure soared. She was rushed to hospital in agony and at risk of a stroke from Autonomic Dysreflexia.

For Sophia, this was not an isolated scare. It was another frightening interruption to the full, busy life she has built—another ambulance ride, another emergency department, another hospital stay.

Autonomic Dysreflexia is a dangerous and a common reality for many people living with a spinal cord injury. An everyday trigger – something as ordinary as constipation, an infection, or tight clothing – and the body can go into overdrive. The response can be sudden, severe and life-threatening.

Signals, blocked by the spinal cord injury, cause a dangerous overreaction of the nervous system. Blood vessels in the brain can rupture, it can cause seizures or trigger a heart attack.

Autonomic Dysreflexia is just one of the many unseen effects of a spinal cord injury, and the reason CatWalk exists – to heal the damage and return function.

Sophia lives well in her wheelchair. It doesn’t hold her back. But behind the life we see are the hospital stays we do not. We miss the fear, the disruption, and the time lost from the people and things she loves.

For too many people living with spinal cord injury, regular hospital admissions are part of life—not because they are generally unhealthy, but because their organs and nervous system no longer communicate as they should.

A bladder issue can quickly become a blood-pressure emergency. A bowel problem can trigger a neurological crisis. An infection, pressure injury or unnoticed irritation can mean another ambulance, another anxious wait and another night away from home.

This is why we must push on and find a cure. Only by healing the spinal cord can we return the communication the brain needs to maintain the body’s equilibrium. Every donation drives this one objective. Please support Sophia and millions like her by donating today.

We need to understand and heal spinal cord injury—not only to restore movement, but to restore function, sensation, independence and freedom from these relentless medical emergencies.

When most people think about spinal cord injury, they think about walking. For Sophia, and for so many others, the hope is more immediate and deeply human: ‘please help keep me out of hospital.’

Your donation today will help CatWalk back the strongest scientific leads and support innovative research focused on healing spinal cord injury.

Your support can help move promising research forward faster—and bring Sophia and others closer to a future without the constant threat of the next crisis.

Every gift matters. Every breakthrough begins with people who refuse to accept that this is as good as it gets. Together, we will heal spinal cord injury.