A judo star from Inverness was in a coma yesterday after suffering severe head injuries in a motorcycle accident in Vietnam.
Stephanie Inglis, who won a silver medal at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games in 2014, had been travelling to a school where she was teaching English when her skirt got caught in a wheel and pulled her off the bike.
Her younger sister Stacey told the Press and Journal yesterday the family had been “overwhelmed” by messages of support and donations to a fundraising appeal.
About 3,000 people have pledged a total of more than £100,000 to help fund the 27-year-old’s medical bills, after it emerged that her travel insurance had run out.
Former Motherwell FC director Les Hutchison donated £10,000 to the fund, while Travis frontman Fran Healy pledged £500, and local MSP Fergus Ewing gave £50.
Fellow athletes and celebrities took to social media to urge people to back the campaign and Ms Inglis through “the hardest fight of her life”.
Her parents Robert and Alison, who live at Daviot, have travelled out to the hospital intensive care unit in Hanoi where she is being treated.
Fighting back the tears yesterday, her sister Stacey said everyone was praying for her recovery.
She said: “I’ve been trying to reach our parents all morning but I haven’t been able to get through. They sent me a message on Facebook to say there was no change.
“My parents are just telling the doctors to do everything they can to keep her alive, it doesn’t matter about the cost.”
Thanking the thousands of people who had donated to the fundraising campaign, the 25-year-old added: “It has been a great help. I was shocked and overwhelmed. I can’t thank everyone enough.
“I am hoping to get a flight booked and go out myself. She has got a lot of friends supporting her and we have a lot of family. We are just praying.”
Ms Inglis, a former Millburn Academy pupil, was inspired to take up judo as a four-year-old on the encouragement of her father, Robert, a coach with the Highland Budokan Judo Club.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she battled her way to the final of the 57kg category, picking up silver after losing out to England’s Nekoda Davis.
Fellow judo athlete Khalid Gehlan set-up the fundraising campaign, claiming she had not received appropriate medical care in the early stages because her insurance had expired.
However, he added: “If anyone can pull through this, it’s Stephanie.”
