Leeds mum learned to walk again after crash left her with paralysis and a brain injury

  • Video report from Michael Billington.

A Leeds mum who spent 14 years learning to walk again after being hit by a car is raising awareness of the realities of living with major trauma.

Amy Stevenson, 40, was left brain damaged and paralysed at eight years old after being hit by a car as she walked near her home in Cookridge, Leeds.

She was waiting to cross a busy road with her friend when a car came past, driving too fast and too close to the curb. She was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital.

Mrs Stevenson said: "I spent two weeks in intensive care and was in hospital for another six weeks."

The accident left her with a serious brain injury, broken left femur and paralysed down one side. She feared she would never walk again.

At the age of eight, Amy was hit by a car, leaving her with life-changing injuries.

Mrs Stevenson said: "I had a dream and I wanted my life to be a certain way and I was determined to make it happen if I could.

"So I wasn't going to give up unless someone told me you won't walk again."

After undergoing 14 years of determined rehabilitation, countless surgeries and visiting specialists in America, she walked for the first time unaided in 2006 at 22-years-old.

The mother of three now volunteers with the charity Day One Trauma which supports major trauma patients and their families in the UK.

As part of the charity's Major Trauma Awareness Week a new 'Dear Me' campaign has been launched.

The campaign encourages people affected by a catastrophic injury to write to their younger selves, with Mrs Stevenson's letter being shared on the Day One Trauma Supports website.

Mr Stevenson said: "I found it very therapeutic for myself to look back at what I used to think about when I was a teenager.

"When I was reliant on a wheelchair and reliant on someone pushing me around all the time it was hard to see any future."

A spokesperson at Day One Trauma Support said: "Although Amy's and the other letters are unique, there's constant themes of loneliness, isolation and having to get through times on their own."

The charity hopes to use the recurring themes brought up in the letters to inform the support given to others in the future.

Discussing how far she has come Mrs Stevenson said she is living a life she "didn't think possible".

She added: "Of course I still struggle, the injuries from the crash still affect me to this day, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come and the life I’ve built."