So scarred b y crash I wanted to die.. but new love saved me
Evi hails £1m trauma charity
DEVASTATED Evi Machova had to battle mental scars as well as physical ones after a car crash tore away her dreams of romance.
Evi was so badly injured she feared she would die at the roadside.
She suffered multiple fractures to her pelvis and legs, chunks of flesh were gouged from her arms and hand and she has been left with serious nerve injuries to her limbs.
It took two months before she could stand, six months to walk again and her long and painful recovery has pushed her right to the brink.
When she was ready to look for love again a string of men turned their backs on her, unable to deal with her disability.
But Omar Agha, 48, saw beyond her injuries and his love and comforting words helped her through after she hit the depths of despair.
Evi, 37, said: “I’m so lucky to have found Omar. He is so kind and patient - the kind of man I’ve been looking for all along.
DEDICATION
“After my accident, dating was very hard. I struggled to be intimate, because I was in terrible pain and was so self conscious about my scars.
“But Omar made me so at ease. He loves my scars, saying they tell my unique story.”
Evi, from Berkshire, is sharing her story as part of Barts Charity Trauma Appeal, backed by the Sunday Mirror.
It hopes to raise £1million for vital research and treatments for traumatic incidents such as crashes, stabbings and falls – which claim 17,000 lives a year.
Evi is one of 70,000 people a year left permanently disabled by trauma in the UK.
But now, thanks to her medical team and advancing treatments the Mirror wants to help fund, Evi has returned to part-time work as a nanny.
She’s also begun work as a training associate at Bridges Self-Management organisation and has created the survivors group Power Through Trauma.
Evi urges Mirror readers to back the appeal so other victims get the best help.
She said: “I’m still in a lot of pain but I manage it. In my darkest moments, I never imagined I could be as happy as I am now. I hope other survivors read my story and see there is hope.” Evi’s world was turned on its head in 2015 when her car hit a pothole and careered into the path of another vehicle.
She crawled free from her smoking car and admitted: “All I could think of was that I hadn’t called my mum and I might not get the chance to say goodbye.”
Hours later, she woke in agony in St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London. Yet it was only when Evi was discharged after two months that, lonely and in crippling pain, she spiralled into despair.
She said: “I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep forever to end the excruciating pain.
“I was so low I’d lined up lots of my pills, ready for that long sleep. But just at that moment, my sister called. I answered and I couldn’t stop crying.”
After a few months brave Evi threw herself into dating again.
But she said: “I was scared of the intimacy. I wondered if it would be too painful.
“Some dates weren’t patient and said that if I really liked them I’d sleep with them.”
Her life changed in January 2017 when she was matched with sales worker Omar on dating app Bumble. They met in London and talked for nine hours. Dad-of-one Omar told Evi he loved her just weeks later and they now live together.
She added: “He was so understanding of how tired I could get and never tried to push me. I was worried what he might think of my scars.
“But he thought my scars were beautiful because they are part of me. Now I feel the same.
“There are some wonderful, kind people in the world – and Omar is one of them. I’m so lucky to have found him.”