Lying still in bed for days, unable to pick up her children and missing work for weeks at a time, that’s what Paula Carter’s life looked like for 15 years.

The 43-year-old struggled with chronic back pain for years in what she believes was triggered by a session with an inexperienced student physiotherapist. 

Carter recalls asking her children to put her socks on and tie her shoes for her, as the pain when she bent down was unbearable. 

But this February, her children will watch her cross the finish line of the Kathmandu Coast to Coast Mountain Run, after she won the Out There Rewards Member Coast to Coast Pass Competition.

It was a long journey to get there for the Nelson mother, who battled years of excruciating back pain. 

Carter was pregnant with her first child when she was 23 and was referred to a physiotherapist in training after experiencing back pain.

“She just bent me until I cried. I thought to myself, ‘oh god, that hurt,’ but you trust that they know what they’re doing,” Carter said. 

That appointment was the beginning of 15 years of “being broken” as her back progressively got worse. 

Between her L4 and L5 vertebrae, scar tissue formed around the disc, pressing constantly on her spinal nerves. There was no pattern to when her back would give out.

 She might wake up one morning unable to move, or bend wrong while picking something up. 

Carter had to give up her hobby of running. Every year, she would have at least three weeks off work on ACC and struggled with the everyday tasks of motherhood. 

"I'd have to tell my kids, 'I'm so sorry, I can't pick you up'. Even as they got older, I'd have to ask them, can you please put my socks on? Can you please tie my shoes? I can’t bend,” Carter said through tears. 

"I went to countless physios, specialists, doctors, chiropractors, and even an acupuncturist, but they all told me there was nothing that could be done. I'd walk out in tears," Carter said. 

After seven years, Carter’s disc ruptured while she was gardening at home.

She lay in the grass in agonising pain, before an ambulance whisked her away to Nelson Hospital.

“I thought that something would finally be done about my back after rupturing my disc, that finally someone would give me a solution,” Carter said. 

Instead, she was discharged that afternoon and told to take Panadol. 

Carter lived with a ruptured disc for another seven years. 

When she was 38, a new physiotherapist in Nelson finally pushed for an MRI, but surgeons reviewed the images and said there was nothing they could do.

She must manage this pain for the rest of her life, and she would never run again. 

“I just cried. I thought, what are my 60s going to look like? My 70s? I’d already spent my 20s and 30s being broken.” 

But the new physiotherapist pushed for a second opinion with a specialist in Christchurch. 

“I'd given up at that point, I was living off Panadol and crossing my fingers,” Carter said. 

The Christchurch surgeon took one look at her scans and said she was the perfect candidate for disc replacement surgery.

But it came with risks. The surgery might not work or could result in paralysis or death. 

"For 15 years, I'd dealt with this debilitating pain. I had to take this chance. I had to grab at this little piece of hope," Carter said.  

"I wasn't expecting a miracle. I was just hoping for something slightly better, so I signed the waiver and went in for surgery.” 

On July 9, 2021, surgeons replaced Carter’s destroyed disc with a prosthetic and she woke up a different person.

"I haven't had a single ounce of back pain since that day. Not one bit. It has been an absolute miracle,” Carter said. 

She's lost some flexibility and core strength but can now bounce on the trampoline with her nieces, bend down without pain, and run.

“I was nervous to start running again, but it doesn’t hurt. I’m running like any other person. It still blows my mind,” Carter said. 

She's completed several half marathons now. She and her husband run events together, he's faster, but runs at her pace, cheering her on. 

In February this year, Carter was the support crew for her husband as he completed the two-day Kathmandu Coast to Coast. 

“I watched all the runners coming off Goats Pass and thought they looked like normal people,” Carter laughed. 

“Most people think Kathmandu Coast to Coast competitors are elite athletes, but they looked like me. I thought that was inspiring. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to do that." 

Her husband didn’t hesitate to tell her she already was and encouraged her to sign up for the run section of the 2026 race.

Carter entered the ballot but ended up on the waitlist. Then she saw the Kathmandu Out There Rewards Member Coast to Coast Pass Competition and thought, why not? 

“I cried when I got the email saying I’d won. I was ugly crying,” Carter said through tears. 

“I know I’m not going to smash any records. But I know that I’ll be able to complete it and that for me, will be my biggest achievement.”



Carter will receive a Kathmandu Coast to Coast Mountain Race Pass, a $1,000 Kathmandu gift voucher, a camping spot at Klondyke, a race day outfit and a race kit as her prize.