A COURAGEOUS woman with a life-limiting condition is hoping to raise enough money to purchase a new wheelchair.

Vicki Dennis, from Bracknell, was born with muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease which causes her to be in pain every day.

Despite her struggles from an early age, she has shown great determination and attempted to remain as independent as possible.

Now, the 36-year-old needs to fundraise nearly £17,000 to allow her to retain that independence and live life to the fullest.

She said: "Although Life started out little tricky my parents were told I would never walk. I of course proved them wrong.

"Up until the age of 21 I lived a fairly normal life I was able to walk on my own, I even drove a car.

"I was super independent. I had a full-time job and met my boyfriend, Keegan. Around my 21st birthday I started deteriorating quite a rapid pace I had to stop working as I was having too much time off work due to the pain I was in.

"As you can imagine I am in chronic pain due to the conditions I suffer with.

"Unfortunately for me, my neck has completely fused together, which causes the most excruciating pain I have ever had. I have this pain every day, even though I am in a lot of painkillers."

Her boyfriend is now her full-time carer and Vicki spends her spare time writing for Muscular Dystrophy UK.

She added: "I am completely wheelchair-bound which has only happened in the last few months as I was diagnosed with arthritis in my hip.

"I am very passionate about this as I feel disabled people have the same rights as everyone else.

"I have found a wheelchair called a Permobil M3 Corpus. I have never ever been in a wheelchair which has so many different functions to help someone be comfortable and independent."

As well as being confined to a wheelchair, Vicki has had corrective surgery on her spine and she was diagnosed with Klippel-Feil syndrome six years ago.

Visit: www.musculardystrophyuk.org for more information.