Locked-in syndrome mum defies odds by completing six-year degree just by blinking

An inspirational mother left with locked-in syndrome has beaten the odds and completed a university degree - just by blinking.

Dawn Faizey Webster was left unable to walk or talk when she had a stroke two weeks after her son Alexander was born in June 2003.

The former teacher discovered she could still communicate through her eyes and tiny head movements - which she has used to achieve academic excellence.

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Dawn, 42, has not let her life-changing condition set her back, and has achieved a 2:2 degree in Ancient History using a specialised laptop that translates her eye movements into text.

She also overcame personal anguish to completel the degree after her husband Simon left her when Dawn became paralysed.

Her Open University degree has taken six years to complete, and saw Dawn complete three-hour exams in three weeks due to her writing speed of 50 words her hour.

Today, describing her monumental achievement, Dawn, from Rugeley, Staffs, said: ‘When I passed my degree, I was so pleased and proud of myself.

'I had achieved my goal that I had for six years been striving for and no matter what obstacles were in my way, such as getting pneumonia twice and other lesser illnesses, I was determined to reach my goal.

'When I first had my stroke, I realised I would not be able to do anything physical.

'I then decided to use the thing that had not been affected and that was my brain. I felt I needed to prove to myself and to others that I was still me, Dawn.

'[My computer] is my lifeline. Never did I imagine when I got pregnant with Alexander that my life would turn out like this.'

Recalling the day she suffered the stroke which led to her developing locked-in syndrome, she said: 'When I woke up that morning I immediately knew something was terribly wrong. I felt dizzy and faint.

'I had pins and needles in my right side and when I went to speak my voice was horribly slurred.

'I was vaguely aware of a tracheostomy tube in my neck to help me breathe, and a tube to feed me being put into my nose. I could hear traffic going by. A nurse washed my hair.

'My mind screamed that my brain was fine. But as I couldn't speak, no one could hear me shouting that inside my paralysed body my brain was still alive.

'Simon (Dawn's now ex-husband), my parents and older brother Mark visited daily. They would talk to me, talk to one another and to the nurses. But all I could do was lie there hopelessly watching them, listening for snippets of news about how Alexander was.

'When Simon left me it was a crushing blow, I had always believed we married in sickness and in health. I was sure if it had been the other way round and this had happened to him, I would always have been there for him.

'Simon later wrote a letter to me saying he had cried about what we had lost together. He had found our cottage somehow haunted and changed without me.

'He saw us both as victims, alone and confused. But I felt betrayed.'

Dawn's living nightmare started when she was rushed to hospital when she was 26-weeks pregnant in and was diagnosed potentially fatal pre-eclampsia.

She deteriorated over six days until her tiny baby had to be delivered by emergency caesarean weighing just 1lb 8oz.

A week later Dawn returned home still suffering high blood pressure, but was told she would be fine.

But after another week, Dawn woke in the night feeling dizzy and slurring her words.

Over the following week, Dawn drifted in and out of consciousness but was unable to move or talk. Her condition got so bad her eye muscles even were paralysed.

She listened, motionless, while her family discussed her condition and doctors told her husband to prepare for the worst.

No matter how hard she tried Dawn was unable to move her fingers to tell people she was still alive and was left staring at the ceiling as the weeks passed.

A breakthrough came when she was finally able to blink, and let her father Alex, who had been at her bedside the entire time, know she was still inside her broken body.

She was soon fitted with the laptop that allowed her to communicate, but her joy was short lived as just months later her husband Simon walked out.

But Dawn refused to be beaten by her condition and kept going for her son, who is now 11.

Living at her parents home in Rugeley, Staffs., she began her degree in 2008, determined not to be beaten by the condition.

Dawn worked three-hours a day on the degree, nudging buttons either side of her head to move the curser on the screen and blinking to register the letters.

Now six years later she has completed the course with honours and is now hoping to tackle a Masters in History of Art as a follow up.

Speaking yesterday Alec, who is Dawn's full-time carer along with wife Shirley, 75, said the pair were 'over the moon' with her progress.

The 80-year-old said: 'It's amazing she has managed to do this considering her condition. We are so proud of her. She worked so hard to get there.

'It was heartbreaking to see her go through all of this. But she hasn't given up. She has her bad days, as anyone in her situation would, but she is determined to keep going.

'She is very proactive about things like that. She is graduating in October up in Manchester, it's going to be such a proud moment for us all.'