Marrianne Rooprai
Co-Founder of the Rooprai Spinal Trust
In 2004 a traffic accident left Marrianne with a spinal cord injury, resulting in paralysis from the shoulders down. An outgoing, bubbly, 27 year old with a zest for life and love of travel, Marrianne’s life changed in an instant.
“Whilst my injury means my life path is very different to how I’d imagined, I still have that same zest for life and I still love travel – it’s just a lot more of a challenge”.
In 2005 Marrianne embarked on a journey of therapy to look after her body post paralysis and to strive for progress. The quest was never about miracles but always about progress for mind and body. Progress to help Marrianne live her life to the full.
Marrianne was the first C4 tetraplegic in the world to walk in the Ekso-Exoskeleton and the highest injured tetraplegic to complete an functional electric stimulation rowing study at Brunel University. Opening the door for others.
Marrianne was invited by the Miami Project, the world’s most comprehensive research centre for spinal cord injury, to participate in their ‘Brain Interface Study’ – a ground-breaking project striving to help individuals regain hand function.
The Rooprai Spinal Trust (RST) is a multi-award winning, entirely voluntary, charity that Marrianne is proud to be a co-founder of. Currently RST supports an average of 20 people a month in the UK to access specialist physiotherapy via their scholarship programme, which allow others to benefit from the therapy that has helped Marrianne so much. RST is a key supporter of Spinal Research.
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“When one door closes another door opens. A saying that has been relevant to me in so many ways”.