New Trend of Pole Dancing Leading to Spinal Cord Injury

If you thought the only danger in pole dancing was std you were wrong.

A MOTHER-OF-TWO from York has been left paralysed after a freak accident during a pole-dancing exercise class.

Debbie Plowman, 32, of Haxby, suffered devastating injuries when she fell, breaking her neck and severely damaging her spinal cord.

After initial neck and head immobilisation at York Hospital, she was transferred to Hull Royal Infirmary for specialist care and surgery on her spine and head.

She was then transferred by air ambulance to the spinal injury unit at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, where she remains on a ventilator to enable her to breathe. At the moment, she is struggling to communicate and is doing so through a computer that tracks her eye movements.

Debbie is hoping to move closer to home next month through a transfer to the Lascelles neurological rehabilitations unit in Harrogate, where she is likely to remain for another six months.

Now her plight has inspired a massive fund-raising drive by relatives and friends, including a Three Peaks walk, a sports dinner at York Racecourse this autumn and a sponsored ascent of Kilimanjaro next autumn. Money raised will go to a Trust fund being set up to help Debbie, and also for Spinal Research UK.

Debbie, who worked at the Tesco store at Clifton Moor and has two young children, Jack, five, and Ruby, two, had been doing pole-dancing exercise classes for two years before the accident happened.

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