Top Gear favourite Richard Hammond has revealed that 18 months after nearly losing his life in a high-speed crash he's still moving forward with what he describes as his "long journey" of recovery. "I thought I was better when I went back to work, but now I don't remember going back," he reveals.
The star, who spent five weeks in hospital after crashing a jet-powered car at 288mph as part of a TV stunt, returned to his job on the show less than a year after the accident.
"It's been a long journey and it's still going," he says. "It's when I consider how far I've come since I was in hospital that I realise there was a lot more to fix than I thought. I spent a year recovering and I'm still on the mend…"
"I damaged all the complicated bits of the brain to do with processing and emotional control," he adds. "I was prey to every single emotion that swept over me and I couldn't deal with it. I had to relearn things from scratch."
However, the brave father-of-two, who still regularly meets with his psychiatrist after battling depression since the incident 18 months ago, has no intention of quitting Top Gear.
"We're all best friends and we love each other dearly," he says of his co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May. "Don't tell Clarkson I said that - he'll punch me next time he sees me!"
Photo: © Alphapress.com
