Brit teen, 15, who was wiped out by paraglider on Turkey family holiday to have back op as fundraiser passes £20,000
A BRIT girl who was wiped out by a paraglider is set to have a back operation thanks to thousands of pounds donated to help her.
Lily Nichol, 15, was enjoying a meal on the last day of her family holiday in Turkey when the freak accident happened, leaving her in intensive care.
The teen was rushed to Letoon Hospital in Fethiye, Turkey, where she is being looked after by medics.
She will now need a back surgery and a chin operation, ramping up her family’s hospital bills to a whopping £45,000.
But Mum Lyndsey Logan said she’s feeling relieved after a fundraiser to help her girl has passed an incredible £22,000 on Sunday.
Lyndsey was unaware that their holiday did not include travel insurance – and when Lily arrived at the hospital, they were met with the massive bill.
She now plans to use £19,000 of what’s been raised so far as a deposit to secure Lily’s back surgery tomorrow, which costs a whopping £29,000.
Lyndsey, 39, told The Sun: “I feel so relieved. I’ve put that down as a deposit… she’s booked in for an operation tomorrow on her back.”
The mum-of-two from Durham said she couldn’t be more grateful for the outpouring of support and donations from strangers.
“Everyone’s just obviously come together, and I can’t thank everyone enough,” she said.
“Every time I look, it’s getting bigger, higher and higher.
“When I went back on my phone and had a look, it’s gone up by an extra £2,000… I now feel that there is hope.”
Lily, who was meant to fly home on Friday evening, still remains in severe pain despite being on medication as her back is broken in four places.
“Once [the medication] wears off, she’s in absolute agony… she’s stuck on a bed where she can’t physically move,” her mum said.
The rapid rise in donations has given some hope to Lyndsey after the past two days of pure nightmare.
The distraught mum described the moment she thought young Lily “was dead” after the paraglider crash-landed on her on Friday afternoon.
The family were on the final day of their trip to the popular resort of Oludeniz, when horror unfolded.
Lyndsey was enjoying lunch with her two girls Megan, 19, and Lily, 15, when her youngest daughter was “wiped out” by a paraglider at the table.
“It’s a mum’s worst nightmare,” she previously told The Sun.
“We were meant to fly home at 7.30pm, so today we went down for our last lunch together, having nice English food.
“I just remember Lily just eating, biting into a slice of pizza and this paraglider just came from nowhere and just totally wiped her out over the table.
“She face-planted the table and we tried to get her up. Obviously she was unconscious and she had a stroke while she was down. I thought she was dead.
“So I pulled her, we tried, everyone pulled her back onto her side and her eye was all gashed open.
“The ambulance came, they took her away and we half had to go into the hotel, I got a passport to go to the hospital.”
The family is currently relying on a GoFundMe page, which has raised more than £22,685 on Sunday afternoon.
You can click here to donate.