A woman who has spent the majority of her life lying down is due to have the second part of her potentially life-saving operation in the new year after returning home for Christmas.
Melanie Hartshorn, from Cramlington, Northumberland, suffers from a rare condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). It causes the 33-year-old's skull to dislocate from her neck and spine and she spends most of her time confined to her bed.
For the last 18 months, Melanie has been kept alive by a surgical halo vest. However she said the halo was only a short-term fix and she needed to raise £100,000 for an operation to fuse her neck to her spine.
