Running her first half-marathon yesterday was a triumph for both Grace Nichols and St John Ambulance.
In August 2008, Nichols - now 19 and an Otago School of Dentistry student - was out cycling with her father, Paul Nichols.
She manoeuvred to let a car past, clipped the back wheel of her father's bike and fell into the path of the car behind them.
The car ran over Nichols from her left hip to her right shoulder, and she became trapped under the front wheel, with the car resting on top of her tiny frame.
St John was quickly at the scene and the car was carefully lifted from her.
With severe injuries, she was placed in an induced coma for six days.
Her right shoulder had been broken in two places, her left shoulder was also broken, a small bone in her neck was broken, all her ribs were broken and she had punctured lungs.
"Had it not been for the St John Ambulance I may not be here today", she said.
Yesterday's marathon event was the second time Nichols had raised funds for St John.
Two years ago, she and twin sister Annabelle began a cycle safety awareness campaign, raising $10,000 selling stickers for a gold coin donation promoting cycle safety for St John and ICU.
"I wanted to support ICU as well as they were the key to my survival," she said.
"This year, I thought now I've finished that campaign this would be a great opportunity to raise a little bit of money for St John again.
It's nothing too major but it's nice to keep that going."
Nichols was joined in the half-marathon by dentistry classmate Enxin Chin (27), who completed her third half-marathon yesterday.
She ran her first on the Dunedin course in 2007 as a challenge after gaining her pharmacy degree with classmate John Gibbons.
Nichols raised $1250 yesterday.
"I got $60 a kilometre. How good is that?" she said.
