A mum who was critically injured in a shark attack has provided a heartwarming update as the she continues her recovery.<\/p>\n
Leah Stewart was swimming between the flags at Coogee Beach on the morning of June 13 when she was mauled by a suspected 3.5-metre great white shark, sustaining life-threatening bites to her arms and legs. <\/p>\n
The mother was placed into a medically induced coma for nearly two weeks, undergoing several surgeries and having her arm amputated. <\/p>\n
A fundraiser was created to help the Sydney woman in her recovery, with more than $558,000 raised for her rehabilitation, prosthetics and ongoing medical treatment. <\/p>\n
In a fundraiser update, the mother said she has been \u201cconstantly overwhelmed at how supportive people I know, and even strangers, have been, and how much they\u2019ve cared about my family to make such an impact on our lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I\u2019m so happy that I\u2019ve progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, I think it\u2019s appropriate for us to turn off donations on the GoFundMe, because what you\u2019ve offered has given us enough to recover, to stay in our home, and to give us options for further medical treatment down the road.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said the past few months have been spent on healing and slowly returning to \u201cto some sort of normal life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have a long way to go, but my recovery has been remarkable, and a huge part of that is because of the absolute army of love, support, prayers and encouragement surrounding my family and I from all over the world,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat means more to me than I can say, and I truly believe it\u2019s played a huge role in my recovery.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ms Stewart said she feels as if she has been \u201cgiven a second chance at life\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 I\u2019m not going to waste it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs I get better, I know I\u2019ll make something of this second chance and aim to give back even more in generosity, care, and love. I will forever be grateful for everything, and everyone, I\u2019ve been given.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve inspired me to get better, not bitter.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mum who was critically injured in a shark attack has provided a heartwarming update as the she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5859,114691,119561,118859,119548,119545,119550,49764,119558,51145,53879,43892,119546,119547,119535,119536,22,21,28745,21505,14444,13627,119549,119530,88089,22630,119559,81668,119560,72571,119554,119556,36788,28433,29048,3430,119551,9980,6325,119552,29053,22672,39448,119531,119544,379,119557,119553,43700,81989,37347,119532,119555,119534,119542,13877,119540,119538,119562,41857,45776,4381,119533,119539,83062,40467,43114,78071,43131,119537,37120,45628,119543,119541],"class_list":["post-78482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-5859","tag-a-fundraiser","tag-a-fundraiser-update","tag-a-great-white-shark","tag-a-heartwarming-update","tag-a-huge-part","tag-a-huge-role","tag-a-long-way","tag-a-medically-induced-coma","tag-a-mum","tag-a-second-chance","tag-a-shark-attack","tag-a-suspected-3-5-metre-great-white-shark","tag-an-amputated-arm","tag-an-incredibly-difficult-few-months","tag-and-love","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-care","tag-coogee","tag-coogee-beach","tag-donations","tag-even-strangers","tag-further-medical-treatment","tag-generosity","tag-healing","tag-heartwarming-update","tag-her-arm","tag-her-arms-and-legs","tag-her-recovery","tag-her-rehabilitation","tag-how-supportive-people","tag-june","tag-june-13","tag-leah-stewart","tag-life","tag-life-threatening-bites","tag-life-threatening-injuries","tag-love","tag-more-than-558","tag-ms-stewart","tag-mum","tag-my-family","tag-my-recovery","tag-nearly-two-weeks","tag-newswire-news","tag-normal-life","tag-ongoing-medical-treatment","tag-options","tag-our-home","tag-our-lives","tag-prayers-and-encouragement","tag-prosthetics","tag-second-chance","tag-several-surgeries","tag-shark","tag-shark-attack-victim-leah-stewart","tag-some-independence","tag-some-light","tag-some-sort","tag-such-an-impact","tag-support","tag-the-absolute-army","tag-the-flags","tag-the-gofundme","tag-the-morning","tag-the-mother","tag-the-past-few-months","tag-the-road","tag-the-sydney-woman","tag-the-world","tag-this-point","tag-this-second-chance","tag-touching-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}