SCOTTISH judo star Stephanie Inglis has vowed to return to the sport she loves, just months after a freak car accident left her fighting for her life.
The 27-year-old was given a one in 100 chance of surviving the critical brain and neck injuries she sustained in Vietnam, where she had been teaching underprivileged children, on May 10 this year.
READ MORE: Scots judo star Stephanie Inglis has Nando's lunch as she continues on road to recovery
Yet after life-saving surgery and months of recovery, the Commonwealth Games medallist says she could be back home in Inverness in around a fortnight.
Speaking for the first time since the accident, she praised friends and family – and thousands of supporters – for aiding her defiant recovery.
She said: “I don’t even know how to thank everyone. If it hadn’t been for them, there’s a big chance I wouldn’t be here today.”
She added: “I don’t remember anything of the accident. The first thing I knew was waking up in Edinburgh with my parents there, telling me everything that had happened to me.
“Everything took a wee bit of time to get my head around. It was quite a scary time.”
It is believed her injuries came after she was dragged backwards off a motorbike taxi when her dress became tangled with one of the wheels.
Stephanie with school pupils in Vietnam.
But, despite her life hanging in the balance, the stricken star was facing a separate struggle for medical insurance, with her coverage apparently no longer valid because she had been in the country too long.
READ MORE: Scots judo star Stephanie Inglis has Nando's lunch as she continues on road to recovery
A massive fundraising campaign for Stephanie, spearheaded by fellow judoka Khalid Gehlan and both their families, helped provide crucial medical treatment and transport to bring her home to Scotland last month.
She is continuing her recovery at Cameron Hospital, near Leven in Fife.
“I’m feeling good – nearly back to normal,” she said. “My therapy sessions are going really well and I’m just waiting on an update about when I can get home properly. Hopefully, it will be in the next couple of weeks.
“The goal is to return to how I was. Judo was my normal life and I want it to be again. I don’t know how far I can take it but I want to return to fitness training as I can’t imagine life without it.”
Progress has been steady for Stephanie and she even managed to make a trip to Nando’s for her sister Stacey’s birthday.
She said: “I had been desperate for a Nando’s – it’s one of my favourites – and I’d been going on about it all the time.
“Stacey said to me, ‘Let’s go out for my birthday’, and she chose Nando’s as she knows how much I love it. That was really nice of her.”
Her mother Alison added: “As a family we have been through so much and as a parent I’m still coming to terms with the nightmare we found ourselves living in. Rob, Stacey and myself are eternally grateful to everyone who helped bring Stephanie home alive.
“Without all the awareness, donations and fundraising, we know it would have been a very different outcome. We thank you all so very much from the bottom of our hearts.”
“If anyone had said within one month she would have been walking, talking and texting on her phone I would have thought they were living on another planet.
READ MORE: Scots judo star Stephanie Inglis has Nando's lunch as she continues on road to recovery
“We are amazed at the rate she has progressed – it is just staggering. She can’t wait to get out of hospital and come home where she will continue her rehab.”
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