Blast victim climbs fell weeks after being in coma

An explosion survivor has defied a doctor's odds by climbing a fell just five weeks after being discharged from hospital.

Leigh Taylor spent nine weeks in hospital - five of them in a coma - after being badly burned in the blast at Tractor Shed Brewing in Workington, Cumbria, in May.

Doctors said it would be at least three months before he could resume his fell-climbing hobby.

However, he reached his first peak just 37 days after leaving hospital.

The brewery worker said he was slowly doing "all the basic things we take for granted".

He also said he was grateful to intensive care staff at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) for saving his life.

"I'm just grateful for the work of the staff, for one saving my life and two - well, I'm quite conscious about my face as it is, because I know it's burnt, but it could have been a lot worse," Mr Taylor said.

Mr Taylor said he had been dragged out from the rubble by a colleague following the blast and remembered paramedics cutting his clothes.

Five weeks later he woke up three stone lighter (19kg) and with "no strength".

Doctors had told him he "might be able" to get back on the fells within three months of being discharged, but he was determined to prove them wrong.

"I'm really positive about the future," he said. "Hopefully [I can] carry on the way I am and try and inspire other people who go through difficulties."

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