A Liverpool mother of two has completed a “Coma to 5K” challenge more than a year after a fall left her in a three-week coma with a life-changing brain injury.
Raina Heverin, 44, raised more than £4,000 for the Brain Charity.
The 44-year-old mother completed 40 laps of the grounds at a specialist rehabilitation unit in Oak Vale Gardens, where she is being treated, covering five kilometres over four days.
Staff, friends and family supported her throughout, with her children holding up a banner as she finished.
When Heverin first floated the idea, people at the facility had not been sure it was doable. She did it anyway, the staff member said.
Heverin’s effort has since motivated other patients at the unit to push themselves harder in their own recovery, the staff added
“I never imagined my story would be shared on BBC News,” Raina wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“My life has changed completely, but I am still here, my personality and bad sense of humour haven’t changed. I’m still ambitious. Still using my voice. Still moving forwards, one small step at a time,” she added.
the accident date back to the early hours of 26 April 2025. Heverin fell from a balcony while on a break in Paris with her brother and sister-in-law.
She has no memory of the fall itself, she believes she may have been sleepwalking or badly disoriented.
The night before the fall, Heverin had swapped bedrooms with her brother and sister-in-law into a quieter bedroom with a Juliet balcony after struggling to sleep.
Her brother found her in the courtyard below the next morning, noticing her bedroom door open with the window ajar.
A neighbour helped the family call an ambulance.
Raina was unconscious for three weeks. In the immediate aftermath, she suffered a bleed on the brain, a punctured lung, and breaks to her hip, arm and ribs.
A doctor in France told her family her fitness before the fall likely saved her life. She’d run, lifted weights, cycled and attended exercise classes.
The mother of two spent two months in hospital in France, before being flown back to Britain. Further treatment followed at Whiston and Broadgreen hospitals.
She transferred to specialist rehabilitation at Oak Vale Gardens in November. The diagnosis: a polytrauma brain injury. Acquired ataxia too. That affects balance, coordination and muscle control.
“Brain injury recovery is slow. Really slow. Progress can be measured in months rather than days, and sometimes the changes are so gradual that you barely notice them yourself. But our brains are incredible,” Raina expressed her emotions.
Tremors in her hands, body and throat now make simple tasks difficult, such as applying make-up or holding a cup of coffee, Heverin noted.
Raina now has to relearn how to do things she once took for granted.
Before the accident, she ran two businesses, Reculture, which she founded, and Supplywell, which she co-founded, while raising her son and daughter.
She has described still grieving her old life, happy and sad at once. Some days, she has said, part of her is still stuck in 2025, even though more than a year has passed since the fall.
“I’m learning that healing isn’t about becoming the person I was before. Perhaps it’s about grieving her, carrying the best parts of her with me, and slowly discovering who l am becoming,”the mother of two said.
In her words, part of adjusting to this new reality has been finding ways to help her children understand it.
Heverin wrote a children’s book called “My Brain and Me” to explain her injury to her son and daughter. She plans to write a second book on how the brain works.
“I have a long way to go, but when I look at where I started, I’m reminded of just how much is possible. Never underestimate the brain,” she said.
