Her name is Helen Galsworthy and she was about 18 years of age when lost her legs after being hit by a train in a teenage suicide bid, reveals how becoming a mum has saved her life. According to reports, she lost her legs - after lying in front of a train in an attempt to take her own life. Suffering from depression and addicted to cocaine, she decided to end her life at the age of 18.
The young teen walked on to the tracks close to her home in Eastleigh, Hampshire and waited for an oncoming train. But she moved out of the way just as the train approached.
This saved her life but the speeding train took off both legs below the knee and Helen was conscious for just long enough to see her detached legs lying on the track. Thankfully, a passing dog walker found her and she was rushed to hospital.
Now, seven years later, 25-year-old Helen says she can finally talk about the ordeal and coming to terms with being an amputee. And now she is moving on with her life after having a little boy, Thomas. “When I lost my legs I thought my life was over, but now I have so much to live for, because my son gives me purpose” said Helen Galsworthy who now lives in Chandler's Ford.
"When I lost my legs I thought my life was over, but now I have so much to live for," said Helen, who now lives in Chandler's Ford. “Thomas has made me realise that I’m here for a reason.”
Bright Helen had a respectable upbringing at a private in school in Hampshire. But schoolyard bullying left her self-esteem in tatters, and when she was 18 she became involved with drugs and dropped out of university where she was studying for a degree in Media.
She said: “Strangely I felt really happy. I was more at peace than I had been for a long time. “I just lay down and shut my eyes and put some music on waiting for when I got hit by the train but it didn’t go to plan.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh GOD, I’ve really messed this up, I could see a lot of blood and the end of my jeans were cut off. It was agonizing. I couldn’t believe what had happened, I lay down there to die, not to end up disabled."
After six weeks in hospital Helen was discharged, but she struggled to cope without her legs. “I didn’t think anyone would want me and I thought I’d never be able to achieve the things I had wanted in life like getting married and having children," she said.
“For a long time life was unbearable until 2011 when I fell pregnant with Thomas. And becoming a mother gave her the strength to move on with her life. Thomas wasn’t planned and I thought I had put my body through too much to ever be able to conceive,” said Helen.
“But I had always wanted to be a mum. His dad and I split not long after he was born but he is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
And now Helen has started university again, studying for a degree in criminology.
She has even taken part in a skydive to raise money for an amputee charity and volunteers on the psychiatric ward where she was once a patient.
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