THE family of a young Merseyside woman trapped inside her own body, after suffering a stroke, is raising funds to bring her home from hospital.

Mia Austin, from Bebington, cannot speak and can only communicate by moving her eyes. But she is completely aware and awake.

The 21-year-old was perfectly healthy before she suddenly became a prisoner in her own body with Locked-In Syndrome.

She woke up during the night, collapsed without warning and has barely moved since. Medics describe her extremely rare condition as “the closest thing to being buried alive”. There is no known treatment or cure.

Her family – father Rick, mother Carol, brother Sam, 24, and sister Sophie, 16 – are now raising funds to bring her home from Clatterbridge hospital where she is currently being cared for. Doctors didn't expect Mia to survive the night after she was struck by the disease last November and put on a life support machine at Arrowe Park Hospital.

They were preparing to switch it off. But Mia opened her eyes, and doctors, who thought she had suffered a brain haemorrhage, realised despite being completely immobile she could still see, hear and think as normal.

She’s now able to communicate, very slowly, using an alphabet board. She uses eye movements – indicating up, down and across – to spell out words letter by letter.