“THE only way I got through it was to think of what Kenzie had gone through.”

The mother of a York teenager who was severely injured in a crash last year has told how she somehow managed to complete a tough 56 mile bike ride from her Acomb home to Leeds General Infirmary and back.

Niki Eastwood said she and five other riders got drenched by torrential rain in the ride on Saturday but battled through to raise up to £3,000 for the Clarendon Wing at the hospital, which saved Kenzie’s life after she was struck by a motorbike.

The Press has reported previously how the “dedication, care and commitment” of medics at LGI helped Kenzie, 13, survive after she suffered fractures to the front and back of her skull, a bleed on the brain, a fractured collar bone, a fractured pelvis and internal bleeding in the spleen.

Surgeons removed a section of skull to relieve pressure caused by swelling of the brain, with a titanium plate inserted later to replace the bone.

She also developed life-threatening sepsis, and was in a coma for another three weeks but she pulled through, and eventually moved into the Paediatric Rehabilitation Neurology Ward.

Niki decided on the sponsored bike ride to thank staff there for keeping Kenzie alive and then eventually getting her back on her feet.

She said earlier this month: “Those who know me know that I don’t even walk to Acomb shops so this is definitely a challenge!” But she said yesterday she had had no idea how hard the ride would be, having gone on training rides of up to 14 miles.

“It was all right on the flat but became really tough when we had to go uphill, but they kept saying ‘you can do it’ and I managed to get all the way there without getting off to walk.

“When we got to Leeds there was torrential rain and we got absolutely soaked but we were lucky it wasn’t that heat and humidity of Friday - we’d have had to call it off if it was still like that.

“We had some good laughs as well and when we got there the nurses came out to greet us.”

She said the ride had raised £2,277 on a JustGiving page. To donate, go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kenzie-bikeride.