A DAD left paralysed after spinal surgery has spoken of the dark times he had to face before coming to terms with it.

Tim Burchell, from Weir Gardens, in Rayleigh, has a rare genetic disorder - Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) – but didn’t find out until he was an adult because he was adopted.

The 41-year-old has undergone 14 operations, including nine brain surgeries, and now has to use a wheelchair and can only use two fingers on his right hand.

He said: “I don’t think I am particularly brave, I have no choice but to live with it. It is just part of my life now.

“I was adopted so I didn’t know I had the disease until four weeks before my final university exams in Norwich.

“It was a hideous shock and I buried my head in the sand for a long time. Between 2010 and 2014, I had nine brain operations.”

VHL can cause blood vessel tumours of the brain, spinal cord, and eye and some of them can become cancerous.

Mr Burchell added: “I have been fortunate because my tumours have been benign. Some people only find out they have the disease when they get cancer in their kidneys from the tumours.”

Eighteen months ago, it was discovered that Mr Burchell had tumours in his spinal cord and was faced with the possibility of needing another operation.

He said: “They told me it was risky, There was a 50 per cent chance of success, I could have been paralysed completely or even dead. This is a success considering what it could have been.

“For five weeks after surgery I just stayed in bed and cried, but I have a wife and daughter and they are my reason to live. It was a big shock suddenly having to use a wheelchair – I didn’t know how to do a lot of stuff, I had to relearn. Everything takes much longer and it is much harder but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. It is just very different.

“For the first six to eight months it was very difficult, I was suddenly looking at everyone’s bellybutton instead of eye level. It all sounds dramatic but you just have to deal with it. It’s been 18 months since then and while I don’t have some of the physical skills I once had, I still have the mental ones.”

Mr Burchell, who used to work in travel insurance for people with existing medical conditions, has now learned to design websites and set up blogs after completing a course run by Sanctuary Housing and We Are Digital.

The one-to-one sessions at his home, has helped him to enhance his existing computer knowledge and find the confidence to seek voluntary and part-time work. He is now using those skills to create debate through his blog about the local environment for disabled people, such as the state of pavements and access to facilities. He added: “It has given me access to web design and blogging which I didn’t know about before. I wasn’t aware how easy it was to access these things; it was very enlightening.”