A television actor whose life was turned upside down after a freak accident in a supermarket has told how her recovery from spinal injuries transformed her outlook from ‘total despair to hope’. Rochdale born Jeni Williams, an actor and comedian whose memorable TV roles include appearances on Coronation Street, Emmerdale and The Royal, fell while on a routine shopping trip in September 2016.
She sustained complex compression injuries to her back which damaged three of the five nerve routes through her spine. Jeni, 56, said following the accident she ‘gave up on herself’ but after years of lack of mobility and pain and with the support of of family, friends ‘who refused to give up on me’ she is now hopeful for the future and dreams of resuming her acting career.
Almost seven years since the accident, Jeni, a former Balderstone High School student, is about to move into a new home in Horwich. She has spent the past five years living at Hoyles Court – an independent living scheme in Radcliffe, operated by Irwell Valley Homes.
Jeni said living in housing which supported her care and rehabilitation ‘changed everything for me’ and credits the move to supported living there ‘as being key to her successful recovery’. Jeni recalls the day that changed her life with the utmost clarity.
The mother-of-two had been on a shopping trip to a supermarket in Winsford, Cheshire. “Overnight my life changed,” Jeni said.
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“I slipped on some fluid on the floor at a supermarket café. I had spinal injury, a disc came out and severely compressed, meaning three of the five nerve routes in my spine were damaged. “So for a long time I couldn’t walk properly without immense pain, I was dragging myself. For my treatment and recovery I was under 21 departments in nine different hospitals.
“At first I was essentially bed ridden with all that entails such as the indignity of being taken to the toilet. The pain was horrendous, I’ve had all kinds of opiates and anaesthesia injected down my spine. “It was almost unbearable. I was depressed, I realised I was isolating before isolating became even a thing in the pandemic. I thought my world had finished.
“I had given up on myself, but my friends and loved ones, they didn’t give up on me. It was a case of I had to pull through because of them, my sons and grandsons."
Speaking about her showbiz career, Jeni outlined her roles in Coronation Street and how she was making strides as a comedian prior to her accident. She said: “One of the roles in Corrie was Sheila Hayes. Her boyfriend sold their 12-year-old lad to Roy and Hayley Cropper for five grand and because she wouldn’t tell the truth, Hayley went to prison because of me.
“I also played the woman who ran Dev Alahan’s Gorton shop and it turned out he had fathered two children with me. That storyline ended up with me having a slanging match with Shobna Gulati’s character Sunita, who confronted me in the show.
“Later I did some stand up comedy and won a couple of competitions at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester, but then I had my accident so everything just stopped.” Jeni has shared her story to highlight the support that independent living schemes like Hoyles Court provide, as Irwell Valley Homes celebrates its 50th birthday.
She said “I was in a privately rented home in Radcliffe at the time and wasn’t getting any of the support I needed around making the place suitable for me. My occupational therapy team worked with the Irwell Valley Homes staff to get everything in place so quickly.
“The level access was a lifesaver and they also installed things like grab rails and supports in the bathroom. They got everything sorted out. It was such a relief and a huge amount of stress lifted when I moved in.”
The not-for-profit housing provider was launched in May 1973 with just a handful of homes in Salford and now supports more than 20,000 customers across Greater Manchester, including 11 independent living schemes.
Jeni is looking ahead to an exciting new chapter in a home of her own – a dream which once felt completely out of her reach. She said: “I’m about to move to Horwich to my own house. “A friend moved over there and I went over a few times and fell in love with the place. I’m also going to see Pink at the Bolton Wanderers stadium next Wednesday.
“These are things which I never thought I’d be able to do.” More recently Jeni’s mobility and pain issues have improved.
“I’m still stuck with chronic pain but I can walk and I try my best to do what I can do,” she said. “I’m doing things I previously couldn’t.”
Jeni is even dreaming of a return to the stage or television. She said: “I’m hoping I could get back into acting. “Friends in the industry such as producers have been unendingly supportive. They’ve come to me and said ‘so what, you’ve got a disability, we need more disabled actors’.
“Nobody’s given up on me.” Jeni made a brief comeback in 2019 performing in a short play, The Outing, written by Lindsay Williams and starring Richard Hawley.
“It was only a 15 minute play but it got me back,” she added. “As well as that, in the Coronation Street storyline I’ve got two kids by Dev Alahan, so you never know, I could come back to the cobbles with his children.”
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