A MOTHER-of-two has been awarded £925,000 compensation after an NHS blunder which left her with a devastating and life-changing condition.

Claire Thornber now lives with constant pain because a prolapsed disc which was pressing on nerves at the base of her spine was not treated fast enough.

The 42-year-old said the pay-out would help her and her children but said no amount would compensate for the trauma and the lasting condition, known as cauda equina syndrome.

She said: “The impact of the errors has been huge and I was just being dismissed with back pain but it was more serious.

“I lost everything to cauda equina syndrome but the tragedy is that if there had been greater awareness of the need for urgency things would have been so different.”

Because of the negligence, Claire lost her established cleaning business Scrubbers & Co and has permanent pain in her legs which makes walking difficult.

She is also doubly incontinent and has suffered a loss of sexual function.

She said: “Before my injury I ran a successful cleaning business but have had to give that up and the strain of everything caused my marriage to break down.

“Running the business was just not an option any more due to the pain and my disability and all sense of a normal life quickly vanished.

“Even socialising was made impossible. No amount of compensation will ever make up for that but I am relieved that I’ll now have some help to cope and try to make the best of things.

“The money is for the future, for my children and to highlight cauda equina syndrome.”

Claire, who lives in Billington, said her ordeal began in August 2010 when she began to suffer severe pain in her back which radiated down her legs.

She said she was referred for an MRI scan which took place in September at a mobile unit operated by BMI Gisburne Park but was contracted by the NHS under the teaching primary care trust - a service that has now been abolished.

The MRI showed a prolapsed disc which was pressing on the cauda equina nerves at the base of Claire’s spine but, according to her solicitor, the radiographer failed to treat it as an emergency, as did the radiologist at Royal Blackburn Hospital when they received the scan report.

Three days later Claire said she went to her GP who suspected cauda equina syndrome and contacted an orthopaedic surgeon at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

She said she was sent to Royal Preston Hospital for surgery the next day but it was too late.

Tragically, without the delay, Claire would have made a near full recovery.

Claire said the only good thing to come from the tragedy was that she now had her own international organisation called the Cauda Equina Syndrome Association.

She said her aim was to ensure medical professionals were alert to the signs and will take urgent action, as well as helping others.

The NHS Litigation Authority said: “ We are able to confirm that, in March 2015, the NHS Litigation Authority settled a claim on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health in relation to an Independent Treatment Centre that provided services for the former East Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust.

“We recognise that this will have been a difficult time for the claimant and hope that the settlement will help provide her with an improved quality of life.”

Claire added: “My life has completely changed, and although I have had some fantastic support, I have really had to support myself at times.

“Now I have built up a network with people worldwide who can, in the future, answer the calls and offer advice around the clock.”

For more information about Claire’s organisation visit www.ihavecaudaequina.com