A North East mum was rushed to hospital and required surgery after a routine walk with family ended with her breaking two bones in her leg.
Vicky Macfarlane, 48, was walking along the Eston Hills in June last year with her family when a decision to take a different route resulted in a dangerous fall.
The Eston resident, who works at Berwick Hills Primary School as a teaching assistant, was on a “normal walk” with her niece and sisters when she slipped and needed to be assisted by mountain rescue teams.
Vicky said: “We decided to take a different route that we had never been down before. My niece went first followed by my sister who also slipped herself.
“Then, I went down and I just slipped onto my bum and I heard a snap which I first thought was a muscle in my calf. I was panicking at that point.
“We didn’t know where we were all we knew was that we were closer to the top than the bottom.”
Vicky then rang her partner who made his way up with her son James to try and help but they quickly realised they needed to call emergency services.
She added: “When they arrived they were struggling to get me down so then I started going into major panic.
“I could feel my foot just wasn’t attached like it usually was and I felt very uncomfortable so I got my sister to prop it up straight with a rock.”
After initially ringing the ambulance and being told they had a two-hour wait, they then rang Cleveland Mountain Rescue who arrived an hour later and swiftly took her to James Cook University Hospital.
Vicky said: “I was offered some painkillers by Mountain Rescue but I wanted to be aware of my surroundings and what was going on.
“They had to part carry and part sledge me down and all the while they were so lovely in making sure I was as comfortable as possible.”
Three days after she fell, Vicky was taken into surgery for a procedure on her leg after it was discovered she had broken both her tibia and fibula.
Now, a year on, Vicky says a year on she is still feeling the impact of the fall which has seen her require further treatment for blood clots.
She said: “It took the year to get back to close to normal because after the surgery I found out I had arthritis.
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“A couple of weeks after my surgery, my partner found me struggling to breathe and I was rushed to hospital with blood clots in my lungs.”
Since her ordeal, Vicky has been raising money to show her gratitude to Cleveland Mountain Rescue after her daughter suggested it – and she has so far raised £400 through efforts including football blind cards.
She added: “I am so grateful for the support and the help I received from the mountain rescue team.”
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