Boxing champion Rachael out of fall coma
A BOXING champion who was fighting for her life after fracturing her skull is out of a coma.
Rachael Buckland, from St Mellons in Cardiff, also suffered a bleed on the brain after falling down the stairs at home.
But the 25-year-old former Welsh bantamweight champion has now regained consciousness four weeks after the accident. She had been placed in an induced coma.
Rachael and her husband – fellow boxing champion Mitchell – have two young children. She is reportedly now able to recognise her loved ones and speak and write as she continues to receive treatment at the University Hospital of Wales in Heath, Cardiff.
Tony Borg – a coach at St Joseph’s boxing gym in Newport where Rachael and Mitchell met – said there was still a long way to go but added that Rachael’s progress to date had taken everyone by surprise.
“It’s just amazing,” he said. “I can’t believe the recovery she has made.
“To be honest, we didn’t think she’d be at this sort of stage until something like February next year.
“She’s obviously a real fighter. She’s done so well to pull through this to the extent she has so far.
“There are positive signs there because she has responded so well. Everyone is more positive than we were expecting to be at this stage. It’s a long way to go but she’s made the best start.”
Rachael’s father-in-law, Gary, told the South Wales Argus: “She is speaking but she’s not really talking, she is whispering and can speak words and is answering questions like when she’s asked if she wants to go to the toilet.
“It’s absolutely marvellous, we are so joyful how she has got through it.
“She is going to be in hospital for weeks yet but she can write and is writing what she wants.
“She’s been on her phone doing stuff that even I can’t do and she kissed her children, Ella-Rose and Lorenzo, when they came to visit her the other day.”
More than £6,400 has also been raised so far by supporters to help Rachael and her young family.