A LIFE coach who miraculously battled learned to walk again following a near fatal car crash has written a book about his experience in the hope of helping others.

Tom Paterson's life changed 18 years ago when his car skidded on ice near Loch Lomond and ploughed into a tree.

Tom woke from a coma after six weeks to find he had suffered multiple broken ribs and a traumatic brain injury.

His speech had also been greatly affected meaning he was unable to walk and talk.

The crash led Tom, now 48, to lose his job, his wife, his family and his house but it didn’t stop him from rebuilding his life, an experience he has now written about in his first book.

Tom underwent speech therapy, occupational therapy and clinical psychology on the road to his recovery.

Tom, a father to three sons Euan, Adam and Luca, works as a life coach and now has his own business called Mind Body Connections.

Tom, who worked in Greenock as a stress therapist at Stepwell, Carers Inverclyde and Phoenix health, told the Tele: “They told me I would never walk again, but I learned and now I am back hill climbing.

“I have always been a positive person but my life has completely changed since the accident. I believe it was a tool to help me turn everything around.”

Tom's book ‘The Journey We Travel’ aims to help people deal with different forms of loss that they may experience in life.

Tom said: “We all experience some form of loss in our lives, after the accident I lost who I was.

“The life I had was gone and I had to learn everything again but I didn’t let it get me down, I saw it as a chance to improve and be better than I was before.”

Now Tom hopes that by sharing his experience people will find some inspiration from it.

Although he sustained injuries to the right hemisphere of his brain which badly impacted his speech Tom managed to stand up in front of more than 300 people in Edinburgh and give a speech about his life and what he had overcome.

Despite having to re-learn to walk Tom completed a half marathon in 2008.

He completed a degree in psychology in 2016 from the Open University and is now midway through his masters.

He is now focused on finishing his studies and marrying his fiancee Louise, who is from Port Glasgow.

He said: “The whole journey has been a learning curve for me, it has been slow moving at times but I was determined to make a change.

“I think my determination got me through, having the will to change and visualising where I wanted to be helped.

"It was a matter of setting small goals and working to achieve them before moving on to the next one.”

Tom’s book, which was years in the making, has been on sale for around three weeks and he is already delighted with the response.

He said: “I never thought I’d be able to write a book but I loved it and the feedback I have had already has been better than I thought.

“People understanding a little about what I went through and gaining inspiration from it is amazing, some people said they couldn’t put it down.”

* Tom’s book ‘This Journey we Travel’ is available on Amazon for £7.99.