GOLD medallist para-rower Naomi Riches has revealed how she was left in a coma and fighting for her life - at the beginning of her sporting career.

The Paralympian, who last week announced her retirement from rowing, told the Marlow Free Press this week about the accident in 2004.

The Marlow resident, whose London 2012 success gained the town its golden postbox, said the story of the collision - and her injuries - is not widely known.

It happened in London as she was crossing a road.

"I was pretty hit and miss for about 24 hours and I was in an induced coma for a week," she said.

"It was quite horrific. It was not a nice phone call for a mother to get at 4am in the morning.

"I did my first world championships, had the best summer of my life and then the accident happened.

"So that was problem number one in my rowing career."

She fractured her skull, suffered brain swelling and broke her humorous in three places. A large metal rod and screws are still in place to support it.

"I don't really remember the next three or four months," she said.

Her family were incredibly supportive, she said, insisting they had the tougher end of the bargain because she was not completely aware of what was happening at the time.

"They had to do all the emotional side of it, I got the easy end."

She was in hospital for three or four weeks.

Remarkably, less than a year after the accident she was competing and winning at the World Championships in 2005.

"It was rowing that got me better, I think. Being quite fit already helped my recovery."

Her head injury meant she could not "think straight" for some time afterwards. But helping coach kids shortly afterwards built up her communication and thinking processes during recovery, she said.

Crossing roads is one of the day to day things that Naomi has to contend with, due to her genetic visual impairment. It comes from the fact that, extremely rarely, both of her parents have a certain gene.

She was born with no cones on her retina. These are responsible for colour vision and light filtering. She said it is like a camera lens that has been overexposed or going from a dark room to bright sun but not being able to adjust.

Her vision is blurry and she has depth problems. She struggles to tell the difference between reflections and shadows and people and to see which ones are moving.

Despite her disability she has had huge success as a sports person, winning six world championship gold medals and a silver, and gold at London 2012 Paralympics and bronze at Beijing in 2008.

Read more of the MFP's interview with Naomi, including what she is going to do next, in Friday's edition.