IT takes more than a fractured spine to break Lindsey Brindle's spirit.
Bolton's top female runner was involved in a potentially career-threatening collision with a car while on a training run at the end of April.
Eight days in Bolton General Hospital preceded what is an ongoing, long rehabilitation programme.
The international has made great progress in her recovery and presented the prizes at her club Horwich RMI Harriers' latest outing at the Henderson's End fell race, hosted by Lostock Athletics Club.
She says the darkest days are behind her and, while she is far from back to her best, she is feeling much more positive about the future.
"I'm feeling really good and making lots of improvement week by week," said the mother-of-two. "I've been walking a lot more than I could, even doing some fell walking.
"I'm not doing a lot at the moment though, I have started hydrotherapy where your muscles become relaxed in a heated pool so they're able to stretch further. I have another six weeks of that but I'm happy with the fact I can can walk – that's pretty good to me.
I am also able to do aqua-jogging, in which I put on a belt (for buoyancy) and run in a pool but without the impact that running on a normal surface would involve. I'm not allowed to do any sort of impact training."
It represents great progress after the accident which severely damaged her L4 vertebra, a crucial element of the spine in the lumbar region.
New-fangled remedies are helping but the international fell and mountain runner, who was training ahead of taking on the Three Peaks Challenge, has restricted movement.
"I fractured the L4 vertebra which is quite a bad one to do," said Brindle, who is yet to return to teaching at Rumworth School in Ladybridge.
"The disc and nerves around it have suffered damage too. I was told a lot of different things after the accident, some saying I would have a lot of pain and never be able to run to the same standard as before.
"The physios have been really positive about how I'm doing, I'm surprised, as everyone is, at the improvement.
"Those first four weeks were by far the hardest but there came a point when I turned a big corner. There are still days where I have a lot of pain and it has been difficult but at least in this weather I have been able to sit in the garden!
"I have had so many people sending their best wishes, the support from the running community has been overwhelming."