An Edinburgh woman who nearly died after being hit by a speed boat while on holiday is appealing to track down a doctor who helped save her life.
PE teacher Rachael Hadjitofi, 31, was left with life-changing injuries and a stoma bag after being struck by the boat in Cyprus in August 2017.
Rachael recalled turning her head to see the boat hurtling towards her, making a split-second decision she flung her head away, allowing her body to take the impact.
Now she is taking on a ten-mile swim across the Firth of Forth for charity – and hopes her mission will help her reconnect with the doctor who came to her aid on the beach.
She told STV News: “The propellers did serious damage to my legs, my lower body.
“The engine broke my back, it fractured my sacrum, dislocated my coccyx.
“The most life-changing injury was needing a stoma bag, an emergency stoma bag put in place on my stomach.”
Rachael believes the woman who helped her was in her late 30s, and could have worked for the NHS in England and has Cypriot heritage.
“She was wearing a pink bikini, I just remember seeing that, but that’s really all the information I know about her,” she said.
“I felt like my life was slipping away and I said to her at one point ‘I think I’m dying’. At that point, she looked at me and she said ‘you’re not going to die’.
“Having a moment like that with a complete stranger in that moment, it’s very surreal – and to not be able to thank her in person feels wrong.”
Rachael is set to swim across the Firth of Forth from Ellie to North Berwick to raise money for Climbing Out, which helps people who have experienced life-changing injuries and trauma to rebuild her confidence.
She has so far raised more than £10,000 for the charity.
The aim is to make the swim, which will likely take around six or seven hours, on Saturday September 7, depending on weather conditions.
The final call comes down to the crew on the safety boat which will accompany Rachael across the Forth.
She has been training regularly in East Lothian at Gullane beach, giving her a great view of the route she will tackle in the coming month.
Rachael frequently posts about her journey training for the challenge on her Instagram profile ‘Swimming with Scars’ and hopes that doing so can encourage others living with a stoma.
“You can swim with a stoma bag. I think there’s quite a stigma around that, and you can live a full life with a stoma bag,” she said.
When Rachael spent her 25th birthday in a Cypriot hospital recovering from the traumatic incident, she worried about what the future may hold.
Despite having to defer her studies for a year, she managed to earn her degree and go on to become a PE teacher like she had hoped.
Not only has she returned to the water, she hopes pushing her own limits with the charity challenge will help inspire others not to let life’s obstacles hold them back.
She said: “I remember being so angry that someone could have done this in the place that I feel so happy.
“I love swimming, I’ve always loved it, it was the first sport I ever tried – and I just knew that I couldn’t let this experience ruin that.”
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