Charity buys Yorkshire home for RAF veteran who had lower leg amputated aged just 24
An RAF veteran who had her lower leg amputated when she was just 24 has praised a charity for its outstanding financial, emotional and practical support - including buying her a home.
Stacey Mitchell, now 33, and living in the village of Preston, East Yorkshire, developed a rare nerve condition that causes constant severe pain after an injury while serving at RAF Odiham.
After a succession of treatments she had an above knee amputation in 2018.
The former senior aircraftwoman was medically discharged from the job she loved, but her parent's home wasn't set up for her needs.
The RAF Benevolent Fund ( RAFBF) stepped in and bought her a bungalow.
Stacey, who competed at the Invictus Games in Canada in 2025, says "it doesn't bear thinking about" what might have happened, without the charity's help: "It was just an overload injury to a tendon in my left foot on a run, but it unfortunately it developed into quite a nasty severe nerve condition called complex regional pain syndrome.
"It was in a cast for seven months. Unfortunately the nerve condition wasn't picked up quick enough and it escalated and left me with a limp - it (the foot) was in the way, and useless to me. I couldn't weight bear.
"It was incredibly painful, and I was on a lot of prescription drugs, I couldn't walk.
"I tried to save it for four and a half years before I went through the amputation and in that time I had different surgeries to try and help. But it was all a little bit too late. There was nothing more they could do.
"They said you can either learn to live with it - I had no quality of life - the other option was amputation."
Recovery has been difficult because her nerve condition made it impossible to wear a tight-fitting prosthetic limb, and she is waiting for further surgery which will hopefully allow her to walk again.
"I'm too young to accept I am going to have to live in a wheelchair. I'm independent thanks to the RAF Benevolent Fund. I'd just like to be upright and not on wheels.
"My recovery officer said we can put an application in for a major grant and the RAF Benevolent Fund accepted it and purchased a house on my behalf and then fully adapted the bungalow so I can live fully independently.
"Since then I have been able to buy the property from them, it has been absolutely life-changing.
"Before I joined up I was incredibly sporty, I used to play a lot of sport and I could no longer do that.
"It was a really difficult time - without the RAF Benevolent Fund I would have been in a completely different position - it doesn't bear to think about it."
Stacey is encouraging former or serving personnel in the RAF who need help "to reach out because the support the RAF Benevolent Fund offers is endless".
The RAFBF was founded on October 23, 1919, by Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, just a year after the creation of the Royal Air Force itself.
In 2025 it distributed almost £700,000 to 914 veterans, many of whom are struggling with the cost of living.