Dancing brought me back to life…

WHEN rally spectator Keith McCleary was struck by a 100mph out-of-control car, paramedics feared he would not reach hospital alive.

The grandfather suffered massive injuries in the accident during the Jim Clark rally three years ago.

But now he is determined to dance his way back to fitness – and has taken to the floor to practise his moves.

The rally, in the Borders, saw three people killed in two separate crashes.

Paramedics feared they would lose Keith, 64, as he bled profusely from his horrendous injuries.

Father-of-three Keith, from Gretna, Dumfries & Galloway, made it to hospital and underwent five months of intensive treatment, with a smashed pelvis, shoulder and ribs and a punctured lung.

But now he is determined to get back on to the dance-floor – and credits the pastime with helping his recovery.

He said: “I am still in pain and struggle with my balance but I’m keen to dance again.

“It’s been one step at a time but I would dearly love to jive again.

“The injuries have left me with chronic back pain and painful pins and needles in my feet.

“But I am not the sort of person to be defeated. I have come this far.

“My medical team worked so hard to save me, I want to show them how hard I am working at trying to recover.”

Keith was forced to give up his job as a qualified mechanic, something he still misses.

“I was forced to give up my job as a highly skilled mechanic and that has left a huge hole in my life.

“But I have survived to see my first grandchild…and he is a joy.”

The smash that almost killed Keith happened outside Eccles, near Coldstream, in May 2014. Iain Provan, 64, his partner Elizabeth Allan, 63, and Len Stern, 71, died when a car spun off the course in a second accident.

Surgeons also had to wait for four days to operate on Keith as his body was too shattered to withstand surgery.

“I remember nothing of the crash. The last thing I was conscious of was talking to a friend of my son in the field off the road and everything is a black hole of lost time in my life after that. My son Grant, was at my bedside when I came to and said, ‘Hello, Dad. How are you?’

“I replied I was fine… but why was I in hospital?”

Keith has since revisited the crash scene with his daughter Nicolle.

“It was tough but I made a decision to go back,” said Keith.

“This was all part of accepting what happened.”

Former champion driver Keith was a member of the South of Scotland Car Club and won the Galloway Hills Rally in 1972 with pal Ivor Clark.

“I would love to return to racing and if I physically could, I would do it in a heartbeat,” he said.

A joint Fatal Accident Inquiry is set to be heard into the deaths at the rally, along with that of Joy Robson, 50, at the Snowman Rally in Inverness in 2013, this July.

Previously, the Crown Office said the inquiry would examine the full circumstances surrounding the deaths and “help to avoid such incidents happening in the future”.

The Jim Clark Rally planned for 2017 has been cancelled after it was refused a permit.

The Motor Sports Association said it would be inappropriate given the on-going enquiry into deaths at the 2014 rally.