Footprints in the Snow : How Science Helped Turn Tragedy to Triumph

This is a two-layered story. On one level it is an extraordinary story of British scientific achievement. It is also Julie's and her family's story of immense personal courage and humour culminating in medical history. After a car crash in April 1990, Julie Hill broke her back, paralysing her from the waist down. She volunteered to become the world's first paraplegic to have a revolutionary electronic device implanted into her spine and attached to the nerves in her leg muscles. Thirty years of pioneering research by an eccentric professor at Cambridge and his team of bio-medical engineers, nursing staff and electronics experts have resulted in Julie being able to stand, step and even go cycling with her children. Having overcome pain, frustration and emotional anguish to make medical history, Julie Hill recounts the tale of how she stood on her own two feet once more, and fulfilled her simple dream of once again creating footprints in the snow.