THE sister of a woman whose life was “ruined” after a freak condition left her in a coma for five days has taken on a mammoth charity challenge in her honour.

Belinda Galbraith’s world was turned upside down when younger sister Kelly Marie McVey had a seizure and collapsed at the Hillington nursery she worked in just after her 21st birthday in July 2013.

She rushed to be by her sister’s side and found her at the then Southern General Hospital laughing and chatting with nurses, who decided to keep the young nursery nurse in overnight as a precaution.

Just hours later she was in intensive care.

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Belinda, who lives in Govan, told the Glasgow Times: “I phoned the ward to find out when I could pick her up and a doctor came on the phone telling me she had been sedated and transferred to intensive care because she was taking seizures all night and was unable to breathe.

“I burst into tears, I couldn’t understand how she was talking to me hours before and then ended up in intensive care – and when you hear ‘intensive care’ it’s so scary.”

Belinda raced to the hospital where doctors tried to prepare her to see her sister, who was in a coma.

“I’ll never forget when they opened the door,” the 31-year-old said, “I broke.”

“We were so shocked. It made no sense. They didn’t know why it was happening but put her in a coma for her own safety.

“Then they couldn’t get her back out of it and on day five they took my parents aside and said they didn’t know if she’d ever wake up or how brain damaged she could be if she did.”

After a six-day coma, Kelly woke and doctors diagnosed her with encephalitis, a rare condition caused when the body overreacts to a mild infection and attacks itself.

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Kelly spent a total of five weeks in hospital recovering but, sadly, her health battles weren’t over as a bizarre side effect to her illness saw her develop epilepsy.

Now Belinda has vowed to walk, run or cycle 5K for every single day Kelly resides in the William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre – which could be anywhere from two weeks to five weeks – where she is receiving treatment in the hopes of curing the condition.

You can find a donation link in the online version of this article.

Ian Williams, head of epilepsy services at the William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre said: “We are delighted to be operational and supporting patients again.

“Safety measures due to coronavirus mean that visiting is restricted for now and we understand how difficult this can be for patients.

“We think Belinda’s fundraising challenge is a lovely idea and we greatly admire her dedication and motivation to support her sister whilst raising funds for the centre.”

Donate to Belinda's fundraiser here.