When she heard the tree crack, Jessica Dicks knew her kids were in danger. 
 
 She dove for the tent where they were playing, racing a 10-metre tree toppling toward them. 
 
 "I remember running for the tent and then that's it — blank," said Dicks, 27. "Then the tree hit me, and it crushed me." 
 
 Her family - including her daughters, aged six, four, and 10 months, was on a camping trip on July 3 at Lawrence Lake Provincial Park, two hours north of Edmonton. 
 
 Three weeks after that day in the campground, where Dicks used her body to deflect the tree away from the tent, she finally woke up from a medically induced coma at the University of Alberta Hospital. She had 20 staples in her head and broken teeth. Rods and screws installed surgically in her back helped alleviate the pain. 
 
 She suffered a collapsed lung and broken ribs. A crushed T5 vertebra left her paralyzed from the chest down. Her doctor told her she'll never walk again. 
 
 Jessica Dicks' girls, Alie, Dailynn and Charlie, camping at Lawrence Lake. (Supplied) 
 
 'Life is a whole lot of work now' 
 
 Since the day she was injured, Dicks has moved from disbelief to "a whole lot of why me?" before concluding there's no answer to that question. 
 
 She kept thanking her spouse, Jason, for staying by her side. 
 
 "Life is a whole lot of work now," Dicks said. "This isn't what we had planned." 
 
 What they had planned included buying a house, having another baby and a lot more camping, fishing and Ski-Dooing. 
 
 "All the things that we love doing — things we'll still be able to do, they'll just be difficult," Dicks said. 
 
 Dicks spoke to CBC News on Tuesday on one of the first occasions she ventured out of the hospital, her family by her side. She wants to warn other parents to be aware of the hazards while camping. 
 
 Just a week earlier she was released from the intensive care unit and had her feeding tube removed. 
 
 Dicks said the hardest part of the experience has been the separation from her daughters. 
 
 "She didn't even recognize me," said Dicks, her voice breaking, as she recalled seeing 10-month-old Charlie for the first time after five weeks apart. "I couldn't console her when she cried." 
 
 Everything is harder now: getting out of bed, getting dressed and imagining the future. 
 
 Worries range from "how hard it's going to be to chase after three kids in a wheelchair," Dicks said, to whether she can afford what she now needs — medication, home care, equipment, wheelchairs, home modifications and an accessible van. 
 
 Jessica Dicks was released from the intensive care unit on Aug. 9. (Supplied) 
 
 An uncertain future 
 
 As a roofer, Dicks made her living by climbing ladders and hauling heavy bundles onto rooftops. She worked for her spouse, an independent contractor. Because he's been by her side since the accident, they have no money coming in. 
 
 Dicks' uncle has set up a crowdfunding campaign. Monty Major doesn't want the niece he thinks of as his own daughter to worry about money on top of everything else. 
 
 He's also set up a Facebook page with updates on her progress because he knows "she can use all the positive energy and prayers from everyone," he said. 
 
 "I think she's a hero. I really think she saved at least one or more of those little girls." 
 
 Dicks said the support of her family allows her to take "leaps and bounds instead of baby steps." 
 
 Her children inspire her to stay positive. 
 
 "They're pretty well my motivation for trying at all to get out of this hospital and out of this chair. I have to get back to them," said Dicks, who, despite the doctors' prognosis, remains hopeful she will walk again one day. 
 
 When asked about the sacrifice she made for her children, Dicks looks over at baby Charlie, sleeping peacefully in her stroller. 
 
 "I would rather be paralyzed than one of them be dead, or them be paralyzed," she said. 
 
 "I'd rather sit in a wheelchair for the rest of my life and watch them grow up normally than be in the hospital with one of them." 
 
 @andreahuncar 
 
 andrea.huncar@cbc.ca ||||| Help for Jess 
 
 Jess had a tree fall on her while camping as she was saving her children. 
 
 On Sunday, July 3, 2016 while camping at an Alberta provincial campground, Jessica Dicks, a 27 year old mother of 3 was involved in a horrific accident when the wind picked up around noon and a tree snapped off about 8 feet up and fell onto her. Jess rushed over to their tent after she heard the crack and seeing that the tree was falling towards the tent where there were 4 small girls ages ranging from 9 months to 7 years inside playing. With the location and angle that the tree ended up, and where she was, it is apparent that Jess deflected the tree from hitting the tent, most likely saving the girls lives as they were on the bed inside directly adjacent to where the tree ended up on her. 
 
 Her brother Douglas was camping with them; Doug removed the tree off her and called first responders where she was rushed to Edmonton. The large tree landing on her resulted in a severe spinal injury to her T5 vertebrae, fractures in the C spine sections of vertebrae, a broken sternum, a collapsed lung, several broken ribs as well as a cut to the back of her neck which required 20 staples to close. 
 
 Since the incident, Jess has been receiving care in the intensive care neurology ward at the University of Alberta Hospital. It took 11 days for the doctors and nurses to stabilize her enough to allow neurosurgeons to perform surgery which entailed installing rods and screws to support the T5 vertebrae and help alleviate the pain. She had her surgery on Thursday, July 14, 2016. Her respiratory issues as well as fractures to the C spine vertebrae remain a concern. At the time of writing this release, it is too early to tell how successful the surgery went to helping repair the damage, or if Jess will ever regain feeling in her lower body. 
 
 There is a very long and difficult emotional, physical and financial road ahead for this young family of 5 and our hero. They have the support of their immediate and extended family but we know that she can use all the positive energy and prayers from everyone if she has even the slightest chance of a normal life. 
 
 There has been a support Facebook page, a dedicated email address and a page set up at Plumfund.com for anyone wishing to donate to the cause. With the exception of the small percentage that Plumfund retains to administer the crowd funding web page, all funds collected will go directly to the young family to assist with all the things they will need in the coming weeks, months and years. 
 
 email: helpforjessdicks@gmail.com 
 
 Facbook page: Help For Jess@helpjessicamariedicks
– A Canadian mother is paralyzed and her life upended after she threw herself in harm's way to save her children, CBC reports. Jessica Dicks was camping July 3 when a 30-foot tree started falling toward the tent that held her daughters—ages 6, 4, and 10 months. "I remember running for the tent and then that's it—blank," Dicks says. Three weeks later, she woke up from a medically induced coma. The tree had fallen on her, leaving Dicks with broken teeth, a collapsed lung, a broken rib, 20 staples in her head, and rods and screws in her back. She was also paralyzed from the chest down. Doctors tell her she'll never walk again. Dicks' uncle credits her with saving her children's lives. "I would rather be paralyzed than one of them be dead, or them be paralyzed," Dicks says. But now she worries about the kind of life she'll have with her daughters. It's unclear how Dicks, who worked as a roofer, will be able to afford the life she and her husband had planned or the medical costs she'll now face. "Life is a whole lot of work now," she says. Her uncle has set up a fundraising page in the hopes of raising $50,000 to help Dicks' family.