Brave Maria Lebedeva, 23, is trying to fight back despite being in severe agony following the smash
A WOMAN has told how she lost her model looks, eyesight and friends after a horror car crash allegedly caused by her ex-boyfriend.
Maria Lebedeva, 23, is fighting to recover despite being in agony day and night following the smash, which has left her with brain damage and memory loss.
Now the Russian woman, once known as the "most beautiful in her university class" is highlighting her dramatic change in a bid to raise money for medical costs.
Before the horrific crash in her home city Novosibirsk on 20 August 2016, pictures show the student posing in a number of stunning snaps.
But she says friends have deserted her now she has "put on weight and lost her old sparkle".
She explained: “You know, I loved travelling, not staying at home. I was into dancing and running. It hurt me so much when I disappeared for everyone. Now I realise I didn't have many friends, I had many acquaintances.
“I miss my independence the most. I feel blind when I walk with a stick. I can hear how people pity me, especially old ladies. I feel defective."
She added: “I can hear better than I could before the accident - and sometimes it really annoys me, the things I hear.”
When her former friends see her now, she is unrecognisable.
She wore a turquoise dress for her prom after she graduated with honours - and hoped to become a lawyer.
But now she can remember hardly anything from a two year period.
Maria, known to her friends as Masha said 2016 and 2015 have "entirely gone”.
The crash left her with brain damage as well as spinal and pelvic injuries. She was in a coma for ten days.
The accident came after a blazing row with her boyfriend of four years, Andrey, because she was half an hour late for a ride home in his car.
She said: “I was late and when I came he was angry. When I got in the car, he was yelling at me."
At the height of the row, police found he had jumped red lights in his BMW 530 and struck a SUV at 50 mph. Andrey and a friend were saved by airbags.
Maria was the only one injured, and at first he came to see her in hospital, but later her parents were forced to sue him for £12,700 medical costs.
Now she says: “He wasn't there for me when I needed his support. He told me: 'Do you think I am the only one guilty of this accident? We are both guilty'. I was so angry when I heard that. It was as if he didn't feel guilty at all. He didn't regret or apologise, it is disgusting to remember….”
But Maria said she refuses to be crushed, adding that she would like to become an air hostess.
And she has taken up singing as a form of therapy at a group for the blind.
She is currently undergoing “experimental” stem cell treatment - but it is expensive.
So far, many attempts to retrieve her sight, and reduce her pain, have failed.
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Her family are looking for new medical approaches to help her recover.
