Cork hit-and-run victim is doing marathon with  doctor who saved her life 

Olivia Keating who is running the cork city marathon this Sunday with Dr Jason Van Der Velde.

A woman who was almost killed in a hit and run six years ago is set to run the Cork city marathon this weekend with the doctor who helped save her life.

Olivia Keating said finally getting to run in the event she was training for the morning she was struck by a car and left for dead in a ditch near Ballinascarthy will be a form of closure for her.

And running it alongside Dr Jason van der Velde, the consultant in emergency medicine who saved her life in that ditch on June 2, 2016, will be especially emotional, she said.

They are raising money for the West Cork Rapid Response that will be used to train volunteer medics in groups like the civil defence and St John’s Ambulance.

Olivia Keating crossing the finish line after a five-day ultra run across the Artic circle last February.

“What happened to me that day was horrendous,” Olivia said.

“I was in training for the Cork marathon, and was due to run it the day after the accident, and I was training for an ultra marathon event in the arctic circle too.

Loads of things were taken away from me that day of the accident, but I decided I wasn’t going to let those two things go. I used them as motivation in my recovery

“I completed the arctic event in February and now doing the marathon this Sunday on the streets of my native city, with the doctor who saved my life, will be a form of closure.

“I'm so grateful to everyone who helped me get to this point. 

'Miracle to be alive'

"To be still alive to do this is a miracle, then to be able to run the marathon I never got to do is like closure for me, and to be able to run through the streets of Cork with one of the people that saved my life is so very special to me in every way."

 Ms Keating’s recovery has been nothing short of remarkable, Dr van der Velde said.

She was struggling with injury the day before the 2016 marathon so she decided to go for a training cycle instead but 10 minutes out the road, she was struck by a car which left the scene. She was found in a ditch by a passerby who raised the alarm.

Critical injuries

Dr van der Velde rushed to the scene and found she had suffered critical head injuries and multiple injuries to her body. He treated and stablised before she was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

Without Dr Jason and his team, Olivia says she would not have made it to the hospital or be alive today.

Olivia Keating crossing the finish line after a five-day ultra run across the Artic circle last February.

“It took months in hospital in CUH and then the National Rehabilitation Hospital, years of outpatient therapies and treatments and years of training and learning how to push through the pain to get me to this point,” she said.

Given her traumatic brain injury, she says she has had to live life slightly differently, and learn to pace herself.

But she has since run another 20 marathons, volunteers with the RNLI crew in Kinsale, and is coaching kids at the Rebel Wheelchairs sports club.

“I’m not doing what I used to do but what I am doing now is a joy.

“There are downsides but I try my best not to focus on them. The incident has put me on a different road but I’m doing my best to enjoy every moment I can now. I focus on what I can do, on the fact that I’m still here and still alive," she said. 

You can donate to her fundraising here: gofund.me/c15fc1f9