AN NHS nurse who walked down the aisle at her wedding, despite losing both legs and all her fingers to sepsis has said thank you to the health staff who helped her get on her feet again.

Fiercely independent Karen Paget, 59, battled back from near-death in surgery to health, mobility and wedded happiness with the help of prosthetic legs to walk down the aisle with her father to marry Lyndon at an emotional ceremony in Gulworthy earlier this year.

Instead of wedding presents, Karen and Lyndon asked guests at the ceremony at the Horn of Plenty country house hotel to make a donation to the Thornberry Centre in Plymouth, run by Livewell Southwest, where she had her prosthetics fitted. The couple presented £1,450 to staff. The money will be used to enhance the patient environment and current service users are being asked how they would like it to be spent.

Karen said “It is a thank you for all they have done for me and my family. The Thornberry team are absolutely amazing because they give people their lives back.”

She said of the wedding: “Everybody was very emotional. I think a lot of the family were emotional because we had got to where I could walk down the aisle, and we were still together after everything we had been through. Lyndon is my rock, my soulmate.”

Lyndon said: “It was a long time coming. It’s something I had wanted for a very long time. It was a lovely day.”

Karen’s nightmare journey through illness, treatment and recovery to wedding started with flu symptoms after a summer holiday in 2018. The next she knew she had to be rushed to Derriford Hospital (where she continues to work as an colorectal cancer staff nurse) by Lyndon.

An intensive care consultant diagnosed sepsis, and said she might have a bowel infection. Karen’s family were told to prepare for the worst as she was taken into surgery to remove part of her bowel.

Lyndon said: “The medical team said ‘you need to call the family because it’s very serious’. We all said our goodbyes. I thought it was over, but actually it was just the beginning.”

After the operation her kidneys failed so she needed dialysis. Her feet and fingers went black, and she was told both legs needed amputating and later her fingers on both hands. In 2019, Karen had her legs fitted by the prosthetics rehabilitation team fits who helped her adapt to using new artificial limbs through a therapy programme.

Karen said: “It has been a very emotional journey and very challenging. You can sit there and be sad or you can get up and you can get on with it.”

Yvie Place, physiotherapy assistant, said: “Karen was very positive with her attitude to getting back to walking. She is so inspirational.”

Livewell Southwest chief executive Michelle Thomas said: “Karen’s story is inspirational. She embodies the ethos of the work at the Thornberry Centre which supports people to live independently and return to as many of their pre-amputation activities as possible.