A high-speed collision with a hare during an Isle of Man TT sidecar practice session has left veteran competitor Maria Costello with life-changing spinal injuries and paralysis.
The accident occurred on Tuesday night on the approach to Brandish corner at speeds exceeding 120mph during the second lap of qualifying.
Costello and her sidecar passenger, Shaun Parker, were thrown from the vehicle and hospitalized with severe injuries.
Organizers initially listed Costello in serious but stable condition before transferring her to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool.
Friends and sponsors launched a crowdfunding campaign on Monday to support her long-term rehabilitation after a spinal fracture diagnosis left her paralyzed.
The GoFundMe campaign detailed that Costello also sustained a fractured arm, sternum, nose, eye socket, multiple broken ribs, and a lacerated liver.
Parker remains at the same facility receiving intensive care for severe chest, leg, arm, and facial trauma.
"I'm doing OK. My left ankle has been fixed, my collapsed lung has been fixed.
My ribs will obviously take some time, my clavicle has been fixed, and my jaw is obviously still broken which is quite uncomfortable, and I still have some blurred vision," Parker said in a social media video update.
The fundraising initiative aims to raise financial support for the 2009 MBE recipient to cover extensive medical costs, specialized equipment, and necessary home modifications.
"Maria will need specialist help with physio care and perhaps surgeries to hopefully help Maria regain use of her legs," the crowdfunding page read.
Organizers emphasized that structural adjustments for her long-term care will completely alter her daily living arrangements.
"One thing that is clear from Maria's injuries is that this will have a lifelong impact on her, not just preventing and affecting a return to sport but impacting Maria's every day life," the campaign page stated.
The financial drive will focus on acquiring specialized vehicles, stairlifts, adaptive household installations, and continuous physical therapy over the coming months.
"Maria will need to adapt almost all aspects of her life.
After a life of giving everything to a sport she loves, she will now turn that determination to recovery and recuperation," the update continued.
The medical team has scheduled additional surgical procedures for Costello as she begins her lengthy recovery process in Liverpool.
"From the initial determination of her injuries it is already clear that Maria will need to move house or make house alterations, with accessibility adjustments needed wherever she is based.
She will need an adapted bed, shower, kitchen, stairlift and specialist vehicle for transport.
Maria will need further surgery over the coming weeks and months and require specialist rehab and physio support," the fundraising representatives added.
