I dropped out of Miss England after mystery illness left me screaming in agony – a common procedure left me paralysed
WITH two beauty titles under her belt, Alanta Richards believed she had a good shot at being crowned Miss England.
But she was forced to pull out after being left partially PARALYSED after a meningitis scare.
Alanta, 18, says she is unable to feel her left leg properly and relies on crutches to get around after a highly invasive procedure to check for the disease.
She said: “I’m still really suffering.
“I can’t do any of the things I love anymore like horse riding and I can hardly feel my left leg at all.
“It’s got no reflex reaction and one side of my body is much weaker than the other. I’ve no idea what’s happened but feel something has gone really wrong.
“I’m worried that I will never feel well again.”
Alanta believed she had a decent chance at becoming Miss England after getting a second chance at the prize.
She is the current Miss Surrey and also entered as Miss Hampshire 2023.
She said: “I was super happy and really excited because I thought I had a good chance this year with it being the second time I’ve competed.”
But ten days before last month’s contest she woke up with a blinding headache, sore throat, body pains and a sensitivity to light before her temperature soared to 41 degrees.
She said: “I’d gone to bed with a bit of a headache but when I woke up it was absolutely awful.
“There were pains all down my body and my boyfriend Shane couldn’t even touch me it was so bad.”
Alanta called 111 who said they would send an ambulance but when it failed to turn up within three hours, her dad Wayne rushed her 10 miles from their home in Farnham, Surrey, to Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley.
The former tourism student said: “When I arrived I was in absolute agony all over. I could walk but was very dizzy.”
Doctors suspected meningitis and quickly hooked Alanta up to a drip before a brain scan which was clear of problems.
When she woke up in a hospital bed the next morning in “excruciating agony” doctors decided to carry out a lumbar puncture – a painful procedure which uses a needle to extract spinal fluid.
She said: “The doctors explained I might feel a pins and needles sensation and to tell them if I did.
“They tried to get the needle in three times before it worked, then all of a sudden I felt a stabbing pain go straight down my left leg. I felt like it was being slashed open.
“At this point I was screaming in pain telling them to take it out.
“Afterwards, the doctors told me to lie flat for 15 minutes but when I stood up my legs went dead as I stood up and my back was in agony.”
Alanta needed a zimmer frame to get back to the ward and says she has been unable to feel her left leg properly ever since – fearing it is partially paralysed.
She claims the hospital gave her just two short sessions of physiotherapy at the hospital but she was still unable to walk properly when she was sent home on May 15.
Alanta says she was later told she didn’t have meningitis and that she had a curve in her spine that made the procedure difficult.
The following night, as contestants took the runway for the Miss England contest, Alanta was laid up in her bed virtually disabled.
She said: “I felt really awful because I should have been there on stage, competing.”
I need help to get dressed and bathed
Beauty queen Alanta
Alanta also missed out on starting a new job as a care assistant after being admitted to hospital and says she is barely able to do anything as she hobbles around on just one leg using a crutch.
She says: “I’ve missed out on taking part in Miss England as well as having to delay starting my new job.
“I’ve still not heard from the hospital about any further physiotherapy to fix the problem and am really worried it’s permanent. I’m also waiting for an appointment with a nerve specialist.
“I need support walking and need help to get in and out the bath and downstairs.
“When I’m tired my leg feels heavy but otherwise I can’t feel hardly anything. If someone were to pinch me I wouldn’t be able to feel it as much as I can in my right leg.”
A spokesman for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are sorry to hear that Alanta was unhappy with her care and we would encourage her to share her concerns with us so we can investigate them.”
