[KHTS] – Family and friends of a Santa Clarita Valley camel trainer who recently broke her neck and back while helping a colleague in Texas are seeking donations to help her return to California via medical transport.

Robin Kimberly Orefice had broken her neck at the C-4 level while riding a camel at a colleague’s camel clinic in Texas. Orefice had traveled to Texas in order to help her colleague and better others with knowledge of camels.

Medical personnel had to fuse her neck at the C-3 and C-5 levels in order to keep pressure off of her spinal cord, according to her Facebook page. Her spinal cord was severely bruised and swollen.

The injury has paralyzed Orefice from the neck down, with little movement in her right hand and leg and almost no movement on her left side, according to her Facebook page.

Friends of Orefice have been posting to her Facebook profile with wishes of recovery.

Orefice is currently still in Texas, but friends and family have set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money to get her back to California, as well as help with medical bills.

The lowest goal of the page is $9,000, which would bring her back home via medical van. The drive would be approximately 22 hours long non-stop.

She could also be transported by medical plane, which would be approximately a four-hour flight.

The Go Fund Me account has so far raised a little over $9,000 in funds in the three days it has been active. The overall goal of the account is $200,000 to help cover the medical costs involved with treatment as well as recovery, according to the Go Fund Me page.

As of Nov. 8, the Go Fund Me page has raised over $9,300 by 94 people.

Orefice is an animal trainer with a specific expertise in training camels.

Orefice recently lost a camel early September when she and her son were walking it along Auga Dulce Canyon Road just west of Davenport Road.

A young driver on the phone drifted over and struck the camel with his silver Toyota Tacoma.

The crash occurred one week before the annual Agua Dulce parade, in which Orefice enters her camels.