Paralysed mum who completed marathon in robotic swimsuit dies in ‘accident’
A paralysed mother-of-two who finished the London Marathon in robot suit and raised £1m for charity has died in a Middle East ‘accident’.
Claire Lomas, 44, was paralysed in a horse riding accident and decided to dedicate her life to fundraising.
But now her family, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, have revealed she died on August 22, following an unknown accident.
A statement from her family, including her parents Martin and Joyce, read: ‘We are absolutely devastated to lose Claire. We would ask people to respect our privacy in the coming days to allow us to grieve in peace.’
Claire Lomas, 44, was paralysed in a horse riding accident but decided to dedicate her life to fundraising
Claire completing the 2012 London Marathon after 16 days
Claire Lomas at the paralympic games with the torch relay cauldron lit in Trafalgar Square, London, in 2012
An old photo of Claire with her daughter Maisie
Claire had a successful career as a chiropractor and competed at a high standard in Three-Day Eventing in horse riding but her her life took a dramatic turn in May 2007 when she collided with a tree while riding in the Osberton Horse Trials in Nottinghamshire.
She suffered severe injuries, breaking her neck, back and ribs and puncturing a lung when her horse threw her off.
The injuries caused her to be paralysed from the chest down and went through a long period of depression, which she detailed in her first book, Finding My Feet.
