Almost eight months on from the horrific crash that claimed the lives of two of her close friends, Rachel Elliott continues down the long and arduous road to recovery.

What that recovery is, only time will tell.

Following the crash in Bundoran in August of last year, Rachel has been unable to walk and has relied on others to help her get through her day to day life.

However she is determined to get back some sort of independence and normality in her life and she hopes with all the work that she is doing that she may walk again unassisted some day.

In the past three weeks, Rachel has visited the No Barriers Foundation in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal where, with the use of an Eskobionics Robotic Exoskeleton, she has been able to walk.

“It is small progress,” explained Rachel. “It helps with a lot of different things and a lot of people with spinal chord injuries use it.

“The exoskeleton gives you the feeling that you are walking. You have to really concentrate moving your body to the left, then moving your body to the right.

“There was a fella that did it four or five times and he got some tingling sensation in his legs so hopefully that could happen to me and something good could come out of it.”

It was tough going for Rachel but it was all worth it as it gave her son the chance to see her walking once again.

“At the start I wasn’t supposed to do that much walking but it felt good. It’s hard to keep your body up straight and tell your mind to do things to try and move your legs.

“It’s a great piece of equipment hopefully if I keep using it I might get some feeling out of it.

“I brought my wee boy because he is always asking when are you going to walk again so I brought him up and said ‘do you want to see mummy walk’? And he was so excited. He saw me walking so it was a nice experience for him too.”

Rachel is positive that some day she will walk again and she has regained feeling in her stomach, where once there was none as she continues to get back to a way of life before the accident.

“Not a day goes by I wouldn’t think of the accident but I am in a lot better place than I was before and starting to do more for myself and starting to do things on my own. I need to get on with my life.

“I’m back driving now in May and I’m hoping if I keep going to No Barriers maybe, I’m not saying it would happen, I may get some feeling back in my legs.”

Rachel has been so impressed by the No Barriers Foundation she is taking part in a charity skydive to raise funds for the newly formed organisation.

On the May Day Bank Holiday weekend (May 4-6) in Carrickfinn, Co. Donegal.

For more information on the skydive you can email hello@nobarriers.ie or contact them on their website www.nobarriers.ie or their Facebook page.