Olivia

Coffee this morning with Olivia. Olivia was a senior partner at one of Scotland's most prestigious law firms.

One day in February 2002, at the age of 36, she was feeling unwell at her office, she went home suspecting flu but during the following day deteriorated to the point that she was struggling to sit up or walk. She had a raging thirst, swollen neck glands and her feet and hands were ice cold and had started to itch.

The first doctor she consulted diagnosed a virus and told her to take an aspirin and go to bed. Questioning the diagnosis, Olivia called for an ambulance and by the time she got to hospital her condition was becoming acute.

She was admitted to the city´s old Royal Infirmary and diagnosed with the Group B strain of the disease, for which there is no vaccine. She lost consciousness and her family were told to expect the worst.

Amputating all four limbs stopped the disease spreading through her body and allowed her to survive to begin the painful process of having prosthetics fitted and learning to walk again. As a quadruple amputee, she has launched what has become a major charitable enterprise - 500 miles - which provides prosthetics and orthotics for amputees in Malawi and Zambia.

She has been described as a "one woman dynamo, a powerhouse"! And so she is. And I'm proud to be among her friends.