Janet Gray suffered leg and arm fractures and facial injuries

Northern Ireland's blind water skiing world champion Janet Gray has spoken of her long road to recovery following a near fatal accident in Florida.

The 41-year-old County Down woman is making steady progress six weeks after smashing into a wooden and metal ramp in Tampa Bay.

Despite severe injures, Mrs Gray vowed to get back into action, but admits she is now taking one day at time.

On the day of the accident, she was trying out new skis but went off-course and crashed into a ski-jump ramp.

Speaking from her home in Hillsborough, she said: "I went out to get used to a brand new pair of jump skis, I wasn't going out to jump.

It will take time to get built up again and then hopefully get back into the fitness programme Janet Gray

"I went out and moved a little bit to the left to see how they reacted, a little bit to the right and suddenly I was unconscious."

She sustained a broken jaw, plus leg and arm fractures and facial injuries, and underwent four hours of surgery.

Mrs Gray paid tribute to the medical team at Tampa General Hospital, where she was airlifted to following the accident.

"I had super surgery in the states. I had one of the top plastic surgeons out there and the surgery was terrific," she said.

"It will take six to nine months, I suppose to get back on my feet. I can't put any weight at all on the leg due to the femur injury. That's going to take time.

"I have a wheelchair and crutches. I'm not awfully strong at the moment, it will take time to get built up again and then hopefully get back into the fitness programme."

Brain shuts down

She admitted that mentally she was very strong for the first few weeks, but then the trauma just hit her.

"I am getting flashbacks about the accident and I've remembered quite a bit. It is coming back which is good," she said.

"Obviously the brain in trauma shuts down and as you come around and start to get back to normal, it does start to release.

"Apparently this is perfectly normal and it will happen."

Regarding her future as a skier, she said it was early days yet.

What she is doing now is just absolutely remarkable Paul Gray Husband

"My main focus at the moment is on the recovery and I just want to really focus on that and do as well as possible to get full movement back. We'll just have to wait and see."

Mrs Gray's husband, Paul, said he had been speaking to his wife five minutes before the accident, but got a subsequent call to say she was being taken to hospital.

He added: "When I arrived at the hospital, the doctors told me that the best thing I could do was to go and find a good undertaker.

"I spoke to her briefly before she went into surgery. I said to her: 'Don't you dare leave me.' She squeezed my hand and she's here."

He paid tribute to his wife's willpower in the face of adversity.

"Our house is not really build for wheelchairs. We have a battery of wheelchairs. We have a battery of crutches all over the place.

"I was always in awe of what Janet did, skiing wise. What she is doing now is just absolutely remarkable. "

Mrs Gray, who suffers from a hereditary condition which blinded her father and her brother, began water skiing at 21 after losing her deteriorating sight in an accident at work.