AWARD-WINNING Press journalist Tom O’Ryan has spoken for the first time about how he fractured his pelvis in a freak accident while cutting his grass.

Mr O’Ryan, 58, of Brawby, near Malton, was hit in the back by a flying fence post after tape became tangled in cutters attached to a tractor in an accident in May that left him in intensive care.

Surgeons at Hull Royal Infirmary successfully operated on the racing journalist to pin his pelvis and work on crushed vertebrae after the accident.

He has now returned home, where he is being cared for by his partner, Wendy Barry.

Mr O’Ryan said: “Every day is just a tiny bit better than the last, and it’s wonderful being back home after three weeks in hospital.

“Unfortunately I have developed a blood clot in my groin which is something of a setback, but I am being treated for that now with warfarin.

“The accident itself seems absolutely surreal, to be honest. It’s more than a month after it happened now and I still can’t say that it feels like it was real.

“I feels like it was me acting in a film, a horror film. It was like getting hit by a runaway train.

“The good news now is that the surgery is over and I’m taking it one day at a time.”

Mr O’Ryan is on morphine-based painkillers and needs to wear a body brace throughout the day, which means he cannot stand or walk and will have to use a wheelchair for the next six weeks.

He said: “I am due to return to Hull Royal Infirmary at the end of July for X-rays on my spine and pelvis during a consultation with the two surgeons who completed my operations, which were to mend four spinal fractures – there is now a six-inch long framework of metalwork holding my spine, including six screws – and three pelvic fractures.” Mr O’Ryan said he has had 150 cards of support and has been overhwelmed by the kindness he has received.

He said: “The cards, phone calls and messages have been unbelievable.”