“I heard the bull thumping along but I never saw him coming. I will never forget the sound of his hooves coming at me; the ground was shaking under me.”

On a July evening in 2009, while driving towards home, Ann came across cattle out on a small country road less than a mile from her home. They had broken out of the field they were in and there was no way to get around them. She tried to ring the owner of the cattle but couldn’t get through to him. She then rang her husband who was at home, she asked him to come and meet the cattle to turn them back towards the field.

“Once I knew my husband was going to turn the cattle back I got out of the car to open the gate to put them back in the field. I couldn’t see anything else in the field so I opened the gate. That’s when I heard him coming and the next thing I knew I was turned upside down in the air. I knew that I was in trouble but I had to get away from the bull.”

I crawled out on my hands and knees back to the road, I wasn’t able to get up

“At this stage the cattle that had broken out had come back into the field and distracted the bull so I crawled out on my hands and knees back to the road, I wasn’t able to get up.”

Anne’s three young children aged four, six and eight were in the car when the bull attacked her and the ordeal has had lasting effects on them.

“The children saw me crawling back out of the field and it had an effect on them.”

The attack left Anne with a broken breast bone, three fractured ribs, a fractured wrist and a twisted pelvis. Recently she has also ruptured two discs in her back. However it was much more than just broken bones.

“I am in pain all the time, which requires a lot of painkillers. It’s the little things that have the biggest effects, I was no longer able to pick up my children to give them a hug which was heartbreaking. Even going up the stairs can be an ordeal and some nights I just have to sleep downstairs.”

The depression can get very black when you get so restricted in what you can do

“It has been a long road to get here and I have been to physiotherapists, therapists and more. People underestimate the physiological effects an injury can have. The depression can get very black when you get so restricted in what you can do. You try and stay strong for your children but you see the effects it has on them when you have to stay lying in bed for weeks it’s very hard.”

“Doing something as simple as dropping the children off to school or picking them up again can give you such a boost, you couldn’t realise.”

“My children have been brilliant; they have had to grow up before their years which is difficult to watch as a mother because you would do anything for them.”

Dangers

“I was brought up on a farm, I was used to animals and I was used to handling them. I knew to respect animals and I never took them for granted but it just happened so quick.”

“It shows how dangerous it can be, you don’t have to be wearing the wellies for a farm accident to happen.”

Farm Safety Week

Farm Safety Week runs from 4 July to 8 July and the Irish Farmers Journal will have daily coverage as well as in this week's print edition.

Share your stories

Do you have a personal experience to share? Email webdesk@farmersjournal.ie and we will publish a selection of these online.

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