As she skied down the mountain slopes on a bright sunny day with the wind in her hair, Kathryn Taylor-Barnes couldn’t have felt more elated. On a break in Switzerland, the 45-year-old GP from Richmond, Surrey, was just thinking how perfect the conditions were.
Ahead of her was her fiancé Michael. They had come on holiday with the couple who had introduced them two years earlier.
“Then, out of nowhere, I felt a sudden impact,” says Kathyrn. “There was a heavy knock on the left side of my helmet which felt like the blow of a hammer.
“While I had been travelling less than 10 miles an hour, a skier on the much faster red slope, who hadn’t seen me, had veered into me at terrific speed. He collided with me side on and all the force of the impact hit me on the left side of my helmet and face.”
Despite being dazed, Kathryn managed to stay standing. Meanwhile, the other skier, who was shouting at her in French, had broken his nose and lay on the ground clutching his face. But while there was no blood on Kathryn, it was clear the impact
had left her with serious injuries.
