A CHARITY worker who recently retired after devoting her life to helping the vulnerable has been left paralysed by a freak accident.

Marion Blower, 60, who is better known by her maiden name of Corner, left her position as community hub manager at the Sudbury Resource Centre at the end of January.

She was intending to spend the first six months of her retirement in Spain and had packed for the trip when she fell down the stairs at her Boxford home and broke her neck.

She is in intensive care at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, after having a major operation to stabilise her neck.

Last night, her husband Bryn Blower told the EADT: “It was the Saturday morning and the cases were at the bottom of the stairs because we were due to go to Spain the next morning.

“Marion went upstairs to bring some clothes down when she fell and landed on the cases and broke her neck.

“She had to have a huge operation to insert a rod to stabilise her neck, and she is very poorly. She has limited movement in her arms but the doctors have said she is unlikely to ever walk again.

“This is a horrific thing to happen to anyone – let alone someone who has dedicated her life to helping other people.”

Mrs Blower was taken back into intensive care yesterday after experiencing breathing difficulties. She has been assessed by staff from Stoke Mandeville specialist hospital and will be moved to the Buckinghamshire unit to help with her recovery as soon as a place becomes available.

Sudbury mayor, Jack Owen, who worked with Mrs Blower at the Resource Centre, said he was shocked and devastated.

He added: “Marion has been a wonderful person for the resource centre and always went above and beyond what was required. When she retired the place was packed and you could see the adulation and affection on the faces of the people she has helped there.

Town clerk Sue Brotherwood, who has known Mrs Blower for several years, added: “She is such an active person, who has spent her whole working life helping others and it would be an absolute tragedy if she cannot walk again.

“I am just devastated that she has had the accident and hope and wish that she will make a full recovery.”

Mrs Blower, who has a 40-year-old daughter, Mandy, and a son Alan, moved to the area from London more than 20 years ago and initially worked at the now-closed Jane Walker Hospital in Nayland, which specialised in working with people with learning disabilities.

During nearly two decades at the Sudbury Resource Centre, she helped develop areas where trainees with learning disabilities could work in recycling and packaging, horticulture and catering.

Although she had retired, she intended to continue to take on consultancy and advocacy work.