A 25-year-old man has detailed how he thought he was going to lose his life following a motorcycle crash earlier this year.

Lewis Jennings (25) was involved in a one-vehicle accident on his BMW F800GS on March 28.

The incident happened when he was out for a ride alongside his friend and was travelling home from Sligo via Manorhamilton in County Leitrim.

The Ballinamallard man described how he remembers how he came off his bike after freezing momentarily.

“I remember sliding on the ground. I remember feeling the impact, but not seeing the effect, and then I remember the impact of my body hitting the ground.

“My back landed in the shuck, I was flung up over the bike and a traffic sign and went through a fence, taking the fence down with me.”

Mr. Jennings remembers lying in a field and struggling to breathe, which he would later learn was due to a collapsed lung.

“I was kind of breathing, and I was testing all my limbs to see what I could move.

"I couldn't move my right arm because it was behind my back, and then my leg - I couldn't sit up to see what was going on, but I knew I couldn't feel this leg either.

"I could move my left hand, and its thumb was broken and I [later] had to get K-wires [pins put] in."

Lying in a shuck, Mr. Jennings described how he could feel the water in the shuck running down his back.

"He added: “I was later told the water in the shuck was clear, but when it came past me, it was red.”

Mr. Jennings described how he lay in the field and was miraculously found by two off-duty paramedics.

“They found me, and they were as calm as could be. They told me, ‘You’re all right, cub’."

He revealed he did not know who any of the off-duty medical professionals were, but he would be keen to meet them, and to thank them.

Mr. Jennings said his friend - who had been travelling ahead before realising anything was wrong - came back and found him as the paramedics worked on him, and thought he was dead.

“He thought I was dead whenever he first saw me, because I wasn't moving. I wasn't making any noise or anything. I don't remember that part."

Mr. Jennings was then transferred to Sligo General Hospital, where he was treated in the trauma room and was diagnosed with internal injuries, a collapsed left lung, a bruised kidney and a ruptured liver and spleen.

He was later transferred to the Mater Hospital, in Dublin, but within a few days of the accident, he had a mini-stroke.

It was during this period of recovery that he developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition which attacks the nerves.

Mr. Jennings hoped that talking about his experience with Guillain-Barré syndrome to The Impartial Reporter would help draw attention to it, and how the rare condition affects people.

During one incident, he began to vomit and was struggling to physically vomit, and during this ordeal, his lung collapsed again.

Mr. Jennings said he doesn’t remember this happening. Four days later he woke up in ICU and discovered he was paralysed from the neck down.

“The Guillain-Barré syndrome attacked all my nerves, throughout my arms and my legs.

"I could move my head from side to side, but I couldn’t speak, as I had a tracheostomy, and because I couldn’t breathe they had to incubate me.

“I had lines everywhere; everything was sore. I had a tube through my nose to feed me.

"All I wanted was a drink of water, and I couldn’t for about four weeks, as anything I would have ingested would have gone into the lung."

Mr. Jennings was paralysed for six weeks and then, thanks to a plasma exchange, he was able to recover gradually, being able to move his fingers and toes.

He explained that he had to be determined to recover, as there were a number of mental barriers to recovery, and at times he felt like giving up. Thankfully, he pushed past these barriers.

“I have got a really good determination, and I got over the mental barrier of being in ICU.

"I have been challenged mentally in the past, but this is the biggest challenge I have gone through.

"I went down to the normal ward to start physical rehabilitation, and I had to learn to swallow properly; [relearning] walking came back pretty quick.”

Mr. Jennings was discharged from the hospital on July 12 after almost 17 weeks in hospital, and he met that evening with friends from Brookeborough Flute Band, who had organised a fundraiser on his behalf.

Standing with his bandmates, he felt deeply humbled: “I got home on The Twelfth, and got a photo taken with Brookeborough Flute Band without my crutch, and it was humbling to get back.”

He was encouraged to fight on by their support, as well as that of his devoted family.

“My family stood by me every step of the way,” he said.

“My mum, Sandi Jennings; my grandparents, Pearl and Leslie Wilson; my auntie Beverley and uncle Lialit Kanojia and my cousins - if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t know what I would be coming home to."

He was delighted to reunite with them at home and with other family and friends.

One other big reunion was with his dogs, which he had also badly missed while he was away.

“Things like that [reunion] were big to me when I was recovering and wanting freedom,” he said.

He was particularly grateful to his work colleagues for their support, and also that of his neighbours who rallied around his family.