An Edinburgh woman who had to wait three hours to be taken to hospital after coming off her bike in a horror accident yesterday, wants to thank the kind-hearted strangers who gave up their time to make sure she was kept warm and stayed conscious.
Rebecca Curtis-Moss, 35, from Leith decided to go for a long cycle with a friend to East Lothian, but came flying off her bike at a rural path at Musselburgh's Ash Lagoons at around 11.30am.
The woman was left in agony after breaking and dislocating her elbow, but because of the rural location and icy conditions, the ambulance was unable to safely stretcher her to hospital for three hours.
Rebecca told Edinburgh Live how kind-hearted strangers looked after her while her friend stayed on the phone to ambulance.
Rebecca said: "I flew off the bike after slipping on black ice and my elbows took all the impact, I knew straight away I'd broken it badly.
"My friends called and arranged for her partner to bring blankets and sleeping bags to keep me warm because I was at risk of going into shock or hypothermia because of how cold it was.
"There were two girls behind us and one was a first aider, they ran up to make sure I was ok and stayed the entire time, even giving me their jackets to keep me warm, they must have stood in the cold for hours and it was minus one."
Rebecca told how because of the nature of her injury and how icy it was, it was deemed unsafe for her to walk to the ambulance.
Paramedics also weren't able to stretcher her away because of the weather and the rural location made it difficult for an ambulance to navigate how to get to them.
She added: "They stayed for three hours talking to me and making sure I stayed conscious while my friend updated my wife on the phone and directed the ambulance.
"Another local runner also stopped to make sure I was ok and then brought me some tea from his house to keep me warm - I can't thank all these kind strangers and my friend enough."
Rebecca would like to thank kind-hearted strangers Chris, Megan and Kirsty who stopped to help her, as well as the emergency services, adding that they have, "restored her faith in humanity."
