GB ROWER IN COMA AFTER STAIRS FALL
Atop British rower who was hoping to represent team GB at the next olympics is in a coma in the US after falling down stairs, leaving her family desperate to raise £ 80,000 in medical fees.
Anna thornton, who finished fourth at the World Championships and is two-time Under 23 world champion, had the accident in Seattle last month.
British Rowing have said the 21-year-old from Nottingham is in a ‘stable but serious condition’ but her family have spoken of enduring the ‘ hardest, longest and most heartbreaking weeks’ since she suffered the injuries.
thornton is studying public health at the University of Washington and, as the news of her accident spread, many fellow rowers described her as a ‘wonderful person’ and ‘a true fighter and winner’.
A JustGiving page set up to fund her medical repatriation has so far raised more than £8,000 out of an £80,000 target, including several donations from members of the rowing community.
the page, set up by her family, says: ‘Anna has recently been involved in an accident involving a serious head injury and remains in a coma. the money that is being raised is to bring Anna back from the Seattle hospital that is caring for her.’
olympic bronze medallist Sarah Winckless wrote: ‘So sorry to hear about Anna. Good luck with raising the funds quickly.’
Since racing internationally in 2014, thornton has won five world championship medals at junior and Under 23 level. In September, she and Charlotte Hodgkins Byrne finished fourth in the double sculls at the World Championships in Bulgaria.