A MUM who became wheelchair bound after a rare illness is now helping charities.

Erin Norman was a young journalist working for the Independent in London. But when she was just 30, she had a brain haemorrhage.

Being wheelchair-bound, Erin, 38, of Papillon Road, Colchester, had to give up her journalistic career, including being a columnist for a hobby magazine.

To fill her spare time, she set up a yarn club, which has flourished. She said: “I had been treated for many years for migraines, but aged 30 I had a brain haemorrhage and was in a coma for about a week.

“I went from working as a full- time freelance journalist to just doing infrequent work.

“Over the past couple of years my health has got significantly worse, I had another bleed in 2015. I got very sick and I thought if I keep working at this pace I’m going to kill myself.”

Mrs Norman, who lives with her husband Matthew and ten- year-old son Alex, has a condition where some of the veins in her brain are twisted.

When blood tries to get through, it can burst the veins.

Erin said: “Not only is it like having a ticking time bomb in my head, it’s debilitating. I get seizures and trembles, and fainting spells.”

But she wanted to stay productive and at the end of May she held her first yarn club meeting.

Mrs Norman said: “I just saw a need and a gap in what Colchester has to offer, I wanted there to be some sort of camaraderie for yarn projects.

“Everybody gets stuck in, it’s so inclusive and everybody is so kind. First they are strangers, then they are friends.”

The group is making blankets, made up of 108 different squares, which they will sell to raise money for a different charity each month.

The monthly meet ups are held at the GO4 cafe at Colchester Recreation Ground on the last Friday of the month from 7pm.