Living With... is a series of articles which will take a frank look at how sufferers handle their condition and how it affects their daily lives...

Ella P is 18-years-old and is studying psychology at university. A serious car accident at the age of ten left her paralysed from the C6 vertebrae down.

"To cope with something like paralysis you just have to do the best you can with what you have, although at times that is not so easy to do.

"After the accident, I spent seven months in hospital doing rehabilitation work before I could go home and all I wanted to do was go straight back to school; and get 'back to normal'.

"The school made it easier for me with adaptations like ramping the entrance and installing a disabled toilet. They said I could do half days to rest if I needed to but I wanted to catch up on my school work and prove that I could face the problems and overcome the work I'd missed. When I look back, I realise how big a step this was for me but at the time I felt strongly about returning to school.

"It was tougher when I went to secondary school. I felt I had to grow up faster than the other kids because while they were finding out who they were and what they wanted to be, I was still coming to terms with my limitations. These days I am quite independent.

"There are still things that I can't do for myself but maybe in the future, with a lot of time and patience, I could find ways around certain things to make me more independent. However, at the moment I live on the university campus with a full-time carer. Finding someone I could get along with was a bit hit and miss, but things are great at the moment.

"It is not easy getting used to new carers and this will always be the case, but when I find someone I get on with, it works well.

"On the social front I am fine. University has been a completely new challenge as I sometimes feel a bit isolated in my halls because most of the students are on the upper floors and know each other very well whereas I am the only one living on the ground floor.

Overall, I have great friends in my life who never let my wheelchair act as a barrier in our friendship.

"As far as my family is concerned, they've been brilliant, although it has been very hard on my parents. I feel that at times my sister, perhaps because she was younger when it happened, completely forgets I am in a wheelchair!"

A spinal cord injury is a devastating event. It is clear from Ella's account, that her whole life changed radically and permanently from the day she received her injury. For the last seven years, she has had to come to terms both physically and emotionally with her accident and this is an ongoing process.

The effects of this kind of traumatic injury are felt by not just the recipient but also all the people around them - the emotional impact on all the family is massive and major adaptations to the family home are usually necessary. Most spinal cord injury victims lose control of their bladder and bowel and they have to learn how to manage this.

Severing of the spinal cord has terrible consequences whenever it happens, but the amount of disability incurred depends significantly on the level of the cord where the injury occurs.

Ella's cord is severed at the sixth cervical vertebra (base of the neck) which allows her only very limited use of her hands. If the injury had occurred two inches lower, she would have full use of her hands and arms. It would mean that instead of requiring a carer to help her with so many tasks, she would be able to do much more herself.

Dr Richard Newland of city centre-based private GP service Newhall Medical Practice