Royanne Allen: How a near-death experience changed my life

55-year-old single mum and horse owner Royanne Allen has been riding all her life. And, alongside being a nurturing mother to her 15-year-old daughter, galloping around on her own horse Iggy has long been one of the most integral parts of her life. That was, up until October 2, 2016.

“I was jumping Iggy one day in the fields with a couple of people watching me, and we just took off a stride too early for a jump,” Royanne begins to tell us on a quiet Sunday afternoon. “He clipped his front legs on the top of the jump and face-planted into the ground. I just went flying. For a split second, we were eye-to-eye on the ground and I remember just thinking ‘Oh god’.

“Iggy managed to get up and I was just left rolling on the ground. I had incredible pain in my sternum, and I’d broken my wrist and thumb, chipped my teeth, and bitten my tongue really badly. But I didn’t realise that my neck was injured in any way.”

Royanne clambered to her feet, attempting to walk around and shake off the injury. But it wasn’t going away. She sat down on a bench, and began to realise something was very wrong. Luckily, two of Royanne’s friends – who were thankfully there that day – called some people they knew who were medical professionals, who in turn called an ambulance.

On arrival at Whittington Hospital and following a series of X-Rays, the situation took a turn for the worse – and she was told she couldn’t leave. Not only did they discover Royanne had broken her two top vertebrate and fractured three more, they also found one of the broken bones had severed one of the arteries in her neck. The doctor then informed Royanne that the severed artery meant there was a high chance she could experience a massive stroke at any time.

“I should have bled to death in the field. But because I actually got up and walked, my neck went into such a spasm that it clamped down on the artery and stopped the bleeding. So by doing exactly what I shouldn’t have done with a broken neck (walked), I saved my life.”

Once the severity of the injury to Royanne’s neck was known she was quickly taken to the Royal London Hospitals trauma unit. Two days later they operated on her neck. “I cant praise the surgeon and all the staff who looked after me enough. I had arrived fighting for my life and literally a week to the day of my accident I was discharged and walking out of the hospital!”

It was then after seven weeks and two days with a neck brace (“Not that I was counting!”), before her rehabilitation could really begin. Royanne underwent physiotherapy both NHS and privately, but it wasn’t until she tried something different that her recovery accelerated.

“You can imagine that sleeping was really, really difficult. So I would spend quite a few nights soaking in my bath and I would just lie with my feet sticking out and my neck submerged and it really helped with the pain. I suddenly remembered I’d heard about floating one night – on made in Chelsea no less! And I thought, ‘I must try that’.” “I call it my ‘Eureka moment’ now! I just knew it would work for me. How could it not? All I was doing to be most comfortable was floating in my bath!”

After getting into contact with us here at Floatworks, and booking her first appointment, Royanne headed down to Vauxhall, told us her story, and carefully climbed into one of our i-sopods for the first time. And did it work?

“I knew almost straight away, that I was right,” Royanne continues. “I was quite proud of myself! Everything the NHS has done is marvellous because they saved my life, but floating is unreal. I go in and my neck is stiff, I come out and I am able to move my neck much freer. When I know I’m going to go for an appointment, I start to feel better at just the thought of it. Then I get there, and it’s just like ‘bring it on!’”

Now a regular floater, it’s not just the physical relief that Royanne gets from floating regularly. After the accident, she had to give up riding, and for someone who’s spent their life on horses, you can imagine the emotional toll that might take.

“I was given a 5% chance of surviving my surgery, and was told that even if I did survive, it was possible I could come out paralysed from the neck down.

For the doctors to tell me they have never known anyone survive this kind of injury, and the knowledge that I had done so by doing something I should technically never have done in the first place (you are supposed to lie still if you have a back injury not get up and walk around!). It is quite a hard thing to get your head around.”

“I said to Chris (Floatworks’ Co-owner): ‘All of that can be documented. It can be seen. And I don’t care what any doctor or doubter who comes along says, I’m living proof. I’ve got X-rays, I’ve got doctors’ reports all on paper saying that this recovery has happened, and no doctor can deny when there’s nothing I’ve done but float to get there’.”

Royanne is now a regular floater here at our Vauxhall float centre, and an inspiration to all of us. If you pop into the centre, and are lucky enough to bump into her, we guarantee she’ll inspire you too.