A PEEBLES teacher who spent nine weeks in hospital after a speedboat hit her has completed a fundraising 17.5km swim across the Forth.

Rachel Hajitofi, who works at the town’s high school, was involved in the accident in Cyprus seven years ago.

She was forced to defer her university course in PE teaching at the University of Edinburgh by a year.

Ms Hajitofi recently completed the extreme, long-distance swim for charity ‘Climbing Out’, which aims to empower people who have been involved in a life-changing accident or trauma.

She said: “My accident was completely traumatising and life changing.

“I remember lying in hospital, literally three days after having surgery, and I said to myself, ‘I will not let this ruin my passion for swimming’.

“I went through about 16 hours of surgery, during two days and was hospitalised for nine weeks in Cyprus.

“When I came back to the UK it was a very, very long road to recovery.

“Climbing Out I thought was amazing for people who, like me, didn’t know where to go for that support, but you know you want to get your confidence back and you know you want to push yourself again in physical activities.

“And this is exactly what the charity does so I wanted to raise money to help other people in my situation.”

She added: “I was 24 and my life felt like it had completely shattered.”

After seven years of recovery and a successful PDGE, she urged anyone in a similar situation to have patience with their physical and mental recovery.

The high school teacher raised more than £18,000 by her swimming efforts.

Ms Hajitofi said: “There’s something about open water swimming that is extremely freeing.

“When you’re in the water, you’re so tiny and you’re in this vast, uncontrollable environment and there’s something scary but pretty thrilling about that.”

Her heroic swim comes mere weeks after Caroline Connor, a member of the high school staff, broke a record with her swim across Lake Geneva.

Ms Hajitofi paid homage to Mrs Connor, who she went out swimming with prior to the challenge.

“I didn’t have a set program, I didn’t really have a coach,” she said.

“But I had really good advice from Caroline who’s an epic swimmer.”