Woman farmer shrugs off broken back to seek flock of admirers

A LONELY-HEART shepherdess who launched a quest to find love has told how she was almost left paralysed after breaking her back in a quad bike crash.

• Shepherdess who has attracted a string of admirers after writing an autobiography broke her back after quad bike accident

• Emma Gray, 26, nearly discharged herself from hospital before learning extent of her injuries

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Emma Gray, 26, who single-handedly runs a 150-acre farm, sparked a rush for her affections when her autobiography, One Girl and Her Dog, was released.

But her search for a boyfriend was almost cut short in tragic fashion because her bike flipped over on her parents’ farm in the Borders. She suffered crushed vertebrae, leaving her in danger of being paralysed.

She is now battling back to full health and determined not to let the accident derail her quest to find love.

Miss Gray, dubbed a real-life Bo Peep, said: “I’m not going to let something like a broken back stop me. The crash was the worst experience of my life, but I am determined to carry on.

“I was gathering sheep at my mum and dad’s farm and driving up the side of a quarry on some shingle when the whole bike began to slide. The bike rolled right on top of me. I was in
hospital unable to move for a week, which was very frustrating. I couldn’t do anything.”

Her sister Caroline, 23, was close by and raised the alarm following the accident, over the Jubilee weekend in June.

Paramedics took her to hospital, but she almost discharged herself before doctors realised the extent of her injuries.

Miss Gray lay in a back brace unable to move for a week, before being fitted with a chest cast and discharged a week later.

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She added: “I remember just before the crash thinking, ‘This is going to hurt’. My back’s never going to be completely right. But I was so lucky I didn’t do it on my own farm, where I would have been alone.

“I’m great now, just frustrated at all the things I still can’t do.”

Miss Gray had the cast off two weeks ago and on Saturday she won her first sheepdog trial since the crash.

She grew up on her parents’ farm near Hawick and studied sheep management at college. At the age of 23, after a split from her fiancé, Miss Gray convinced the National Trust to give her the sole tenancy of a hill farm nearby, in Northumberland.

The property has no mains electricity or gas supplies and a windmill-powered hot water system.

She admits her isolation has left her out of the dating loop.

Miss Gray said: “I have been on a couple of dates in the last few months, but since my accident I haven’t been able to go out, so things have ground to a halt.

“In a few weeks, I should be pretty much better and back at work, so we’ll see what happens then.”