From death’s door to brink of stardom Sheena wows The Voice

CAarcrash survivor Sheena McHugh has gone from death’s door to the brink of stardom.

The 26-year-old was a huge hit on The Voice last night and is now tipped for a glorious musical career.

It’s a stunning turnaround after she was left bedbound with a broken back and also lost her voice following the horror smash in 2009.

Now Sheena, from Leicestershire, has opened her heart about the dark days she feared being left in a wheelchair and without her musical dream.

“I can remember pretty much every second from the crash until I went into surgery,” Sheena told The Sunday Post.

“As well as my back, I ruptured my spleen and perforated my bowel. I’m very, very lucky to be alive and it’s all thanks to the skills of the brilliant surgeons who worked so fast.

“It was so traumatic. I was in hospital for weeks having to lie flat on my back before I was even well enough to lie on my front for the spinal surgery.

“I had to have rods put in my back and over the whole period I lost two stone and lots of muscle mass.”

Sheena was allowed home to get loving family care on the long road to recovery.

“My mum had to look after me and even when I started to feel better physically, I needed counselling to get back in cars again,” she says. Things like the smells and force of the impact kept coming back to me.

“You remember all those things and you just can’t let them go.”

Sheena had only just started doing gigs when the crash happened.

“I’m so passionate about my music but it was scary when I started to think about what I would do if I couldn’t sing again. My voice went to nothing but a whisper and it was six months before it came back.”

Sheena tried out for X Factor after her recovery, reaching Boot Camp stage in 2013 before being axed by judge Nicole Scherzinger. But it was so different on The Voice when her rendition of Drake’s Hold On, We’re Going Home had the four coaches’ chairs spinning.

“I couldn’t believe when they all turned,” confided Sheena, who’s now a kids’ singing teacher and part-time barmaid.

“I was changing my mind second to second before deciding to follow my heart and go with Will.i.am. I just thought he’d best know what to do with my voice.”

Sheena’s only regret is that her dad Ken, who started her musical love, is missing out on her glory as he passed away just before her crash.

“We used to do go out and do karaoke together and it was our joint passion,” she adds. “He passed really suddenly from Ischaemic heart disease and didn’t suffer.

“I feel grateful for the time I had with a brilliant dad. I’ve had some bad times but I feel the crash has made me a stronger person.”