Cork couple badly injured in horror crash while travelling to wedding abroad

Tens of thousands have been raised to fund treatment for a Cork couple who were involved in a serious crash while travelling to a friend’s wedding in Portugal.

Grace and Shane Lotty live in Glanmire and were badly injured in a multi-car pileup while on holiday in Albufeira over the weekend – visiting just for a few days for a close friend’s wedding. The couple left their hotel in the city and were travelling by taxi to reach the venue in Guia on Saturday afternoon when they were involved in a serious collision. Emergency services had to cut open the vehicle to save them.

The young couple barely remember what happened – only getting brief flashbacks of paramedics’ faces and of having their heads covered in plastic to protect them from shards of broken glass. The horror crash happened at around 3.30pm that day – mere moments after Shane texted their friends at the wedding to tell them they were just “a few minutes away”.

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Grace was badly hurt in the incident. Now, friends and family of the young couple have chosen to share their story with CorkBeo in hopes of raising funds for her return to Ireland and her recovery treatment.

Danny Bridge and his partner Hannah Irwin, who were at the wedding, shared how when the ceremony started at 4pm and Shane and Grace had not arrived, they didn’t want to ‘jump to conclusions’ straight away, not wanting to cause unnecessary drama on their friend’s big day.

Danny said: “The fact that they didn’t show up when they told us they were just a few minutes away was very concerning. About a half-hour into the wedding, some of us stepped out and started ringing them non-stop. Shane’s phone was broken in the crash, but eventually, someone answered Grace’s phone.

“It was a police officer, and the wedding planner was Portuguese so she was able to help us translate. We found out them were in a crash, but also that they were still alive and that Grace was conscious and talking. We had no idea how serious it was.”

Shane suffered knocks and bruises in the incident, but thankfully he was well enough to be discharged from the hospital in Faro the next day. Grace however had to be rushed in for emergency surgery after dislocating her hip and sustaining multiple fractures to her pelvis.

Danny and Hannah met with Shane on Sunday to help him collect their luggage from the hotel so he could stay by his wife’s side in hospital. The language barrier has been a major challenge for the young couple, but they have learned that Grace will need one more post-rehabilitation surgery to give her the best possible chance for recovery.

The Glanmire and wider Cork city community have rallied to support the pair by launching a GoFundMe to bring them home and fund medical treatments not covered by their insurance. The campaign’s main goal is to buy them a private medical flight – which will be vital to getting Grace home to Cork safely.

Once back in Ireland, she will be able to get the surgery she needs and start her long road to recovery at her home in Glanmire. So far, their campaign has raised more than €50,000 in just 48 hours. Visit their GoFundMe page here.