Teacher left with horrific injuries after being trampled by 57 cows raises £6,000 for life-saving air ambulance

A former teacher critically injured after being trampled by a herd of 57 cows has walked a thousand miles to raise £6,000 for the air ambulance service which saved her life.

Pip, aged 63 and from Bakewell, was out walking her 13-year-old Labrador rescue dog Buster, on his lead, at a local beauty spot when the incident happened in 2019.

“Buster just ignored them and we were just quietly walking across and I don’t actually remember the beginning of the attack”, says Pip.

"But I came to and I was lying on the ground and this cow just kicked me and I rolled over and put my head in my hands and just recited Psalm 23.”

Pip was unaware that the cows had caused her horrific injuries including a punctured lung, 34 breaks to her ribs, a broken finger and collar bone as well as a broken shoulder and serious wounds to her left leg and right knee.

She was airlifted to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital for emergency treatment. She needed an operation to put 17 titanium plates in place to repair her ribcage and she spent eight days in hospital.

“I’m certain that I wouldn’t have survived without the air ambulance, which only took 10 minutes” said Pip.

The surgeon in Sheffield who operated on Pip was skilled in dealing with multiple injuries as he’d worked in Pamplona in Spain where people get injured from the annual ‘bull run’.

Pip completed her 1,000 miles of walking last month and the £6,000 raised is enough to fund four similar life-saving missions.