Family of Irish runner 'still in shock' after accident training for Dublin marathon

The family of an Irish woman left in a coma have said they are 'still in shock' after she was struck by a car while training for the Dublin marathon.

Hannah Leonard (22) from Wicklow was out training for the 2024 Dublin marathon while in Sicily on October 6 but was struck by a car when crossing a pedestrian walkway.

The young woman was sent "flying approximately 15 feet across the road" following the collision and landed on her head.

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Hannah suffered 'devastating brain injuries' as a result of the incident and she underwent three hours of 'life saving neurosurgery'.

Her father has said that the family is still in shock and wants to get her home to Ireland.

Speaking to Claire Byrne on RTE Radio One, father Kevin said the family is 'still in a state of shock with it all.'

"If [the surgery] didn't work, she wasn't going to make it. So thankfully, obviously, the surgery worked, and she got through it. But she was in an induced coma for the first week

'We're just waiting to see when the next surgery is because every day changes depending on her condition. So every time we think we have a plan, the plan changes because her condition changes or something happens.'

'The big thing with her now is, it's up to her to fight. It's up to her to recuperate and recover. And hopefully she recuperates and recovers. They've had a couple of surgeries that they need to do. And once she's through that, it's down to Hannah. It's just a waiting game.'

The family have raised over €150,000 on a GoFundMe for Hannah and Kevin explained that because they do not have access to her phone they don't know if she had travel insurance or not and must organise arrangements for her to be brought home.

“We need to raise funds for the air ambulance and we don't have any idea how much anything is going to cost. So in the short term, we need to get her home and an air ambulance isn't cheap as we've been seeing. But then we need to get physios and occupational therapists and it's going to be very expensive and we have no idea of what those costs are going to be at the moment.”

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