Just a couple of hours after she was struck by a rare spinal disorder, Abby Rout, 20, became paralysed from the neck down.

It all began when Rout felt shooting pains and numbness in her hand, losing all feeling below her neck within the span of 2-hours. Diagnosed as having acute transverse myelitis, doctors say it is a rare condition caused either by a viral infection, vaccination or spinal injury.

Generally, affecting the spinal cord it causes paralysis and numbness in the limbs, while many victims are left with severe disabilities, others if lucky can make a complete or partial recovery within two years.

Rout from Banwell, Somerset is a keen horse rider and was at The Rising Sun in Wooton, Hampshire with friends following a college reunion when it happened.

She had just got into the pub and had not had anything alcoholic to drink, when her arm began to hurt and she dropped her bag. Experiencing shooting pains, she then began to feel her legs go numb, on which her friends rushed her to Southampton General Hospital, where doctors shattering her dream of becoming a riding instructor, informed her she may never sit on her horse Pandora again.

Rout is being treated at Western Community Hospital in Southampton, and though she is still unable to walk, she has regained some feeling in her right side.