Derek Rae has no recollection whatever of the accident which changed his life.

He and his motorbike had a brush with an articulated refrigerator truck near St Andrews.

Nerve damage rendered his right arm all but useless, and ending his job as a joiner, but his determination to make the best possible recovery has transformed him from an average club runner into a Scottish internationalist in mainstream athletics, and a medal contender when he make his Great Britain debut in the International Paralympic Committee World Championships.

He took up running simply to get fit for football, he says. "But I got the bug, and gave football up to concentrate on running."

He was an enthusiastic, but average, club-man with Anster Haddies in the East Neuk, yet despite his horrific injuries he is now running faster at all distances than he ever did prior to his accident in June 2010.

Three weeks before that, Derek ran 3:15 in the Edinburgh marathon. Last year, in the Virgin London Marathon, he recorded 2:44.15, a time that would have given him fourth in the IPC World Championships. This year's IPC world event is in the London race, and Derek has been named in the GB squad in the T46 category.

"Focusing on getting back to my running was a big goal during rehabilitation," he says, "but I don't remember a thing about the accident - or anything from the previous two days: going to work, nothing.

"I was heading home from St Andrews and collided with the lorry just outside Largo Ward. I was air-lifted to Ninewells Hospital and spent six days in intensive care and five weeks in a ward. I probably had about two years' physiotherapy after that. Even they are surprised how much I have come on, I think.

"You could say I got off very lightly, in fact. I had bad bruising and swelling to the brain as well. Luckily there was no damage to my legs - just my right arm: a brachial plexus injury which affects the nerves. I had three operations which have given me very restricted use and movement. I can't lift a tea cup and I have to have my own food cut up. My wife, Susan, does that for me. I don't have enough control.

"I used to write, do everything right-handed. So I have had to re-learn all the things I used to take for granted. I have forgotten how to do them. I was lucky - broke three nerves and stretched one of them. If they had been pulled out of my spinal cord there was nothing they could have done for me. My arm would have been left hanging for the rest of my life. So the injuries could have been a lot worse."

He runs with his arm anchored in a sling, and acknowledges that the accident has helped him discover a talent he was unaware of. "Lying in the hospital, I thought I'd be lucky to run four or five miles, never mind 26. I never thought I'd get back to where I am. It still takes me by surprise.

"I sometime think I'm . . . well, not lucky, but I think I have kind of made the most of the situation I was presented with. I never chose to be in this situation, but i have just sucked it up and got on with life. That's kind of the attitude I have always had.

"My wife has played a massive part in helping me. She never let me get down, always kept me motivated, and kept my spirits up.

"I used to be a joiner to trade, so obviously, that put an end to those days. I never worked for over a year. I'm now a used-car salesman in Kirkcaldy. It has worked out fine.

"In hospital, it went through my mind: 'What am I going to do?' I suppose I knew something was going to pop up. The first few months, I don't think I was in any fit state to work. It was daunting, because my confidence was low. When you are off work so long, you don't have much confidence. I didn't know what I was able to do, and what I couldn't.

"I am lucky. My boss was very good to me, with time off for physio, and hospital appointments."

Richard Brickley is president of Fife Disability Sport. His management role is that of talent identification. Over 40 years he has worked with Paralympic champions and medallists. He does not give opinions lightly, yet says: "Derek is a pretty exceptional guy, unbelievably hungry. I don't think I have ever come across such a committed athlete: absolutely, totally focused and committed - eats, sleeps, and drinks athletics. He would run all day."

That was a problem, not an asset. So Brickley enlisted Fife Athletic Club coach, professor Ron Morrison, who reigned in the 29-year-old Rae, structuring his training. "That's made an incredible difference," says Brickley. "Ron's introduced quality, not quantity. He can go much quicker if he stays healthy."

"I was willing to do three races a week," agrees Rae. "Before, I'd have run anything. Now I follow Ron's schedule rigorously."

Morrison, and St Andrew's compadre Donald Macgregor (seventh in the 1972 Olympic marathon) have been working together, advising Rae just as they did in launching the career of Scotland internationalist Andrew Lemoncello.

The GB call-up has not yet sunk in. "It's quite dazzlng when I think about it. Representing Scotland (which he did over 10 miles in Dublin) was such an honour. Every time I open my running drawer, my Scotland vest makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But representing Great Britain will be amazing. I'm looking forward to going down there and meeting these legends of the sport, and having them as team mates.

"There is more to come, more in the tank, but making my goals public would put on extra pressure."

Ian Mirfin is an award-winning legend in Paralympic sport, a co-founder of Glasgow's Red Star club with Janice Eaglesham and event lead for Paralympic Sport at scottishathletics. "Derek's progress in the past year has been quite dramatic," he says. "He can get close to a medal in London. We think he has a very big future."