A runner who fought back from serious injury in a motorcycle accident could compete at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.
Derek Rae is on the long list for Team GB and is confident he can make the final cut.
Five years ago the 30-year-old, who lives in Kirkcaldy, thought his running career was over after a collision on his motorbike with a lorry near Largoward.
He suffered massive injuries to his right side and was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, where he spent six days in intensive care and five weeks on a ward.
Thanks to his own determination and rehabilitation and physiotherapy teams at Victoria and Queen Margaret hospitals, however, he was able to put on his running shoes again.
Nerve damage has left his right arm almost useless and forced him to give up his job as a joiner but he now runs faster and stronger than before, having given up football to concentrate on running.
Less than a year after his life-changing accident, he completed the Edinburgh Marathon in three hours 22 minutes.
Now, he is training eight or nine times a week to realise his ambition of pulling on the Team GB shirt at the Paralympics next September. He said: “For a long time it seemed like an unrealistic dream but it’s all becoming real now. I’ve still got a long way to go. I’ve only really crossed the first hurdle, but to be put on the long list is an amazing achievement.”
Derek whose brachial plexus injury means he has to wear a specially-designed sling to support his limp arm said he had received tremendous support from fellow runners in the Anster Haddies club, Fife Athletic Club, Disability Sport Fife and friends and family, including wife Susan.
The car salesman, originally from Leven, said being chosen for Rio 2016 would make his hard work over the last five years all worthwhile, both for himself and all those who have helped him.
With coach Ron Morrison, of Fife AC, he has been training for selection for two years and at the IPC Athletics world marathon championships in London in April he beat the Team GB marathon qualifying time by five minutes.
His best performance to date, it also earned him funding from British Athletics through its World Class Performance Programme.
Disability Sport Fife president Richard Brickley described Derek as an exceptional athlete and said: “Coach and athlete will plan meticulously for 2016 and a chance of a lifetime experience for a Fife sportsman who at one time believed his promising running career had come to an end.”
Athletes will be announced next July and if successful, Derek will compete in the T46 category for men with upper limb amputations.