A woman who suffered life-threatening injuries in a serious accident achieved her dream of running in the London Marathon two years later.

Grace Havard, 22, suffered from 28 broken bones, a punctured lung, split liver, bleeding spleen and failing kidneys in a road traffic accident in April 2014.

She was rushed to the major trauma centre at St George’s Hospital, in Tooting, and spent two months rehabilitating before being transferred to Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton.

Ms Havard said: “My experience of being in a road accident and having my life saved by the amazing surgeons at St George’s Hospital tells only part of the story.

“When I had my operations the therapy and rehabilitation teams at St George’s and Queen Mary’s spent months helping me rediscover my ability to walk and build a life again.

“It was really hard but vital work and I would love more people to benefit from the expertise of the therapists who helped me achieve my goal of running the London Marathon.

“It was two years after my accident that I proudly ran for St George’s and Queen Mary’s to raise funds, now I’d encourage others to fundraise for the new therapy appeal.”

Two years later, in April last year, she ran for St George’s and Queen Mary’s to raise funds for the hospital, and still receives treatment from the latter today.

Now Grace is encouraging others to fundraise for St George’s Hospital Charity’s new therapy appeal which was launched this month (November 1).

It aims to provide equipment and facilities for staff and patients.

This can range from speech and language, physical rehabilitation and therapies such for strokes neurosurgery, massages and more.

The idea is to raise money for the treatments at St George’s and Queen Mary’s hospitals and continue providing care.

She added: “When you consider that £20 could buy a yoga mat, £40 could fund a massage session, £50 could provide one-to-one bedside music for a long stay patient to cheer them, then I hope you’ll see just how important support of this kind can be.”

Noel Cramer, director of fundraising at St George’s Hospital Charity, said: “Raising funds for our therapy appeal means we can help even more patients, providing support that is ‘over and above’ what is normally possible.

“We would encourage everyone to help the Appeal in whatever way possible. A small donation, a school or office dress-down day, a collection amongst friends or a sponsored run will do so much.”

For more information, visit: www.stgeorgescharity.org.uk