Family says ‘bionic woman’ Claire Lomas was bright to the end

The family of a woman who raised nearly £1m for charity have recalled how she was “still bright and sticking her thumbs up” in hospital before she died following a microlight crash.

Claire Lomas, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, began fundraising after a 2007 horse accident left her paralysed, with her efforts including completing the 2012 London marathon in a robotic suit.

She died five weeks after the air accident in Jordan in 2024.

Now, for the first time since her death, her family have spoken to the BBC about continuing Ms Lomas’s legacy.

Her husband, Dan Spincer, said his wife had been invited to the Middle East by a company to make a documentary, which she was “really excited” about.

“We went out there, and it just went wrong,” he said.

A pre-inquest hearing was told Ms Lomas was flying an adapted microlight in Jordan on 15 July 2024 when it veered off a road after landing and crashed into a rock. She died in hospital five weeks later.

Her father Martin Lomas said: “Even in hospital, in Jordan, she was still bright when we went in to see her.

“She couldn’t speak because she was all tubed up, but she was still bright and sticking her thumbs up.”

Stuart Hall, a close friend of Claire, added: “My last conversation with Claire was in the hospital. I must have spent an hour just holding Claire’s hand and talking. That’s my last memory of Claire.”

Mr Hall and Mr Spincer are now preparing to take on the Great South Run on 17 October – the last of three challenges the pair are doing in wheelchairs to take Ms Lomas’s fundraising efforts past the £1m mark.

The pair have already taken part in the Great North Run and the Great Manchester Run to raise money for the Spinal Injury Foundation, a charity which hopes one day to help find a way to reverse spinal injuries.

Mr Hall, known as Pid, said Ms Lomas “could achieve anything”.

“Her big mantra was lamp-post to lamp-post,” he said. “You might not see 26 miles ahead, but you’ll see the next lamp-post, and if you get there, you go to the next lamp-post.”

Ms Lomas was told she would never walk again after she was thrown from her horse at the Osberton Horse Trials in 2007 but a suit with mechanical legs, called ReWalk, helped her to take her first steps again at a rehabilitation centre in East Yorkshire five years later.

The suit used braces to support the legs, motors to help rotate joints, weight and motion sensors and a battery pack.

Feet sensors detect when weight is lifted, motion sensors detect hip movement and upper-body sensors allow users to control movement.

Ms Lomas was the first person in the UK to use the ReWalk suit and wore it to complete the 2012 London Marathon in 17 days.

She used it again to complete the Great North Run in 2016, earning the nickname “bionic woman” for her achievements.

Ms Lomas was also selected to light the Paralympic flame in 2012 and was appointed MBE in 2017 for her fundraising efforts.

Her father said: “She decided she was going to get up, do other things and have a good life – and that’s what she did.”