{"id":905975,"date":"2026-11-04T20:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/905975\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T20:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:22:12","slug":"woman-22-unable-to-walk-after-waking-up-to-find-half-her-face-paralyzed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/905975\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman, 22, unable to walk after waking up to find half her face ‘paralyzed’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SWNS\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

A \u201cfit and healthy\u201d young woman has been left unable to walk after she woke up to find half of her face \u201cparalyzed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lillie Thorne, 22, went to sleep as normal, but when she woke up, she found the left side of her face drooping and unable to move.<\/p>\n

And tragically, just days later, the healthcare assistant also lost the ability to speak and walk.<\/p>\n

Lillie Thorne, 22, recovers at her grandparents\u2019 house. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Lillie rests in Furness General Hospital. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Doctors later diagnosed Lillie, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)<\/a> following extensive investigations.<\/p>\n

Her family is currently crowdfunding to help raise funds for private treatment as she doesn\u2019t meet the threshold for specialist help under the NHS.<\/p>\n

Lillie is still too ill to speak, but her aunt, Ashleigh Thorne, 35, said: \u201cWhat is so heartbreaking is that it is completely random, it came out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

Lillie and her boyfriend Marc pose while on vacation in Turkey. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was fit and healthy<\/a> before.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved traveling; in fact, she had only just come back from a family trip to Turkey a couple of weeks before.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors don\u2019t know what caused it, making it all a big mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to see her as a shell of her normal self has been heartbreaking for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is staying very positive and has a great sense of humor which is helping her get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lillie went to bed on Thursday, October 1, as normal after spending the day cleaning her newly renovated first home whilst on a day off from work.<\/p>\n

But when she woke up the next day, Friday, October 2, she found her face paralyzed.<\/p>\n

The same day, she visited the A&E at Furness General Hospital, where she was diagnosed with Bell\u2019s palsy<\/a> \u2013 a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh has revealed her niece was \u201cfeeling fine\u201d and had no symptoms before falling ill.<\/p>\n

She was prescribed steroids and told it could take six months before she is back to normal, before being sent home.<\/p>\n

Lillie, left, spends time with her best friend Molly Devitt. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

The next day she went back to the hospital after she began slurring her words.<\/p>\n

Doctors conducted a CT Scan to test for a stroke, but doctors said there was no indication she suffered one.<\/p>\n

She was then given antiviral medication to treat Ramsey Hunt disease<\/a>, which they thought she might have developed.<\/p>\n

However, despite taking the medications, Ashleigh has revealed her condition kept \u201cgetting worse,\u201d and she was later admitted to the hospital.<\/p>\n

And by Wednesday, October 7, she had lost her ability to speak and walk.<\/p>\n

Helen Lancaster, left, Lillie, Freddie, Antony Thorne and Jai-Jai vacation in Turkey in an undated photo. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

She then began to suffer from up to 30 seizures<\/a> a day, with some leaving her unresponsive, according to the family.<\/p>\n

Her mom, Helen Lancaster, 45, and step-dad Antony Thorne, 45, were by her side the whole time.<\/p>\n

Following numerous investigations and following an assessments by doctors, they diagnosed her with FND.<\/p>\n

FND is often described as a problem with how the brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n

It is thought to affect at least 50,000\u2013100,000 people in the UK, according to charity FND Action.<\/p>\n

Lillie was discharged on October 22, but still suffers from seizures. She has since regained her ability to speak, but still slurs her words and stutters.<\/p>\n

Lillie poses before her diagnosis of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

She is currently living with her grandparents in their bungalow alongside her boyfriend, 28-year-old Marc.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh has said doctors aren\u2019t certain what caused the Bell\u2019s palsy but say the FND might have been caused as a \u201cstress side effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she is still unable to walk and has been referred for physiotherapy to help her regain mobility and independence, although it is currently unclear how effective this will be.<\/p>\n

Her family launched a GoFundMe<\/a> appeal to help pay for specialist treatment in Leeds.<\/p>\n

According to her family, Lillie does not meet the threshold for the specialist NHS service in Liverpool, so they are considering private consultation and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh said: \u201cI think I speak for the whole family and Lillie\u2019s close friends when we say it\u2019s been hard to see Lillie go from a normal 22-year-old to being unable to walk and suffering from multiple seizures a day.<\/p>\n

From left: Freddie, Lillie and Jai-Jai pose during a family trip to Turkey. Ashleigh Thorne \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people know what FND really is, and more awareness is needed of this horrendous disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreatment for FND focuses on retraining the brain and nervous system using a team of specialists to help sufferers regain control of their movements.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there are no specialist centers that are funded by our ICB, so this is where most of the funds will be going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money raised will go towards private specialist consultations and rehabilitation as well as travel to appointments in Leeds and other treatment-related costs.<\/p>\n

Her family hopes the treatment will help Lillie work towards regaining her speech, mobility and independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cfit and healthy\u201d young woman has been left unable to walk after she woke up to find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,1493,9447,1494,12268,1495,15760],"class_list":["post-905975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-hospitals","tag-medical-disorders","tag-seizure","tag-seizures","tag-walking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}