Doctors said I'll never ride again... I'll prove them wrong

Apr 20 2008 By Lesley Roberts

Horse Ace Fights Back After Car Horror

A BRAVE showjumper is battling back from brain injuries after a road accident almost killed her.

Suzanne Dickson competed all over the world and worked at Gleneagles Hotel and the stables of Lord Rowallan.

But that life was ripped away when a car hit her at 60mph as she walked along a country road.

Doctors believe she only survived because she was super-fit but she lost everything in that split second.

After three weeks in a coma, she was blind and her memory had gone. She had devastating head injuries and almost every bone in her body had been broken.

Doctors predicted she would never ride again.

But the 35-year-old, of Auchenheath, Lanarkshire, is on her feet and determined to get back in the saddle without any help.

She said: "I'd love to go for a canter. I've been to riding for the disabled but I don't want to be led by helpers. I feel like shouting: 'Do you know what I used to do?'

"I want to show there's always hope that you can get your life back again after a head injury, even if it's not the same life."

Suzanne spoke about her ordeal as research shows the terrible impact of head injuries, which account for half of all deaths in the under-40s. More than two-thirds of survivors suffer discrimination from health and social services.

Half-a-million working-age adults in the UK live with the effects of such injuries.

A report this week will show they find it difficult to get work, with 64 per cent unemployed.

Eighty per cent said relationships had broken down.

Campaign group Headway say a Government initiative to support people suffering from brain injury has been a failure.

Three years after promises of a shake-up in treatment, 60 per cent of victims still struggle to access care and benefits and suffer abuse in public.

Suzanne said: "The isolation is one of the worst things.

Friends disappeared. I leave messages but they don't call back. My mum says I'm 90 per cent back to the person I was but I'm not in employment any more so I get lonely."

The accident was two years ago, near Dornoch, Sutherland.

Suzanne had been taking part in a carriage driving event and was staying in a country hotel when she went for a latenight walk. She has no memory of what happened.

Only her right leg was uninjured.

Mum Lisa, 6 5, said: "When I saw her for the first time, I didn't think she had a chance."

Suzanne's injuries were so severe that metal plates were used to rebuild her face and metal rods to repair her damaged leg. She spent almost a year in hospital.

But she is now taking an IT course - using computers for the blind - and hopes to train as a counsellor to help other brain-injury survivors.

She added: "I don't want to be a burden on anyone."

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