A WOMAN who was left paralysed following a horse riding accident in Egypt has met some of the team who helped get her home.

Olivia Fairclough suffered a broken back, three broken ribs and damaged lungs, when she was crushed by her horse in the accident last year.

The 32-year-old from Eaglescliffe ended up in a hospital 2,500 miles from home where people spoke very little English.

She had no idea what was going on and, to make matters worse, her travel insurance had lapsed so she would have to pay for any treatment she received.

After her brother Trevor launched a fundraising campaign, donations flooded in from Teesside and around the world to help pay for her treatment and fly her home – a move that was supported by the Great North Air Ambulance and consultants at The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

On hearing about Olivia’s, Professor Stephen Bonner, clinical director of critical care at James Cook, contacted Trevor and offered to help.

He enlisted the help of Arabic speaking colleagues including Mr Waleed Hekal and Dr Elrasheed Ellidir, who liaised with doctors in Cairo to determine the extent of Olivia’s injuries, the surgery she required and the safest way to fly her home.

Olivia had been working in Cairo for a year teaching horse riding when the accident happened. She believes the horse reared over backwards and fell on her.

“I just remember waking up on the sand and not being able to breathe, I thought I was going to die,” she said.

“I was just lying there in hospital not being able to do anything, so to find out my brother and the local community had come together to raise money for me to get home was just so overwhelming. They raised £32,000 in nine days which was amazing. I’m so grateful to everyone.”

Prof Bonner said: “We had the X-ray images sent over and they were discussed in a meeting here with all our top spinal experts.

“After the surgery the main thing was to get her back here before there were any complications.”

Olivia underwent surgery – she now has three pins in her spine – and four days later she was flown to the spinal unit at James Cook.

She was warned she could spend up to a year in hospital but her determination saw her discharged in four months.

Recent X-rays show she has developed curvature of the spine so her dreams of getting back in the saddle have had to be put on hold.

But Olivia is still setting herself a number of challenges for the future, including finding other ways to get involved with horses and planning a trip back to Cairo later this year for a holiday.

“Where there is a will there is a way,” she said.