FIVE years after an accident on a quad bike that fractured Beca Glyn's skull, wearing a safety helmet has been programmed into her subconscious, and is as familiar to her as wearing a car seatbelt.

On that fateful day in March 2018, when she was thrown off a quad bike while chasing sheep, the young sheep farmer became a health and safety statistic.

While she continues to live with some of the aftermath of that accident, Beca says she was lucky.

"I lost my sense of taste and smell, I suffer from dizziness and need to take tablets to give me energy but I'm very grateful that I didn't hit a part of the brain that controls spinal cord or my memory. 

"The ability to taste and smell is nothing compared to the ability to walk or remember.''

The accident happened when Beca was helping her father hunt the sheep on her Betws Y Coed family farm at Ysbyty Ifan.

She look off too quickly, turning the quad bike sharply and overturn and since she wasn't wearing a helmet, she hit her head on the tarmac road when she fell off. 

Beca was taken to hospital by ambulance and it was after nine months of rest, physiotherapy and rehabilitation that she returned to farming, missing an entire lambing season and putting extra work pressure on her parents, Glyn and Eleri.

Now 30, that accident has made her extremely careful when it comes to safety on the farm, and also the well-being of everyone on the farm, including her father.

"He was with me when I had the accident and in shock, no one wants to see one of their children unconscious and injured,'' Beca said.

"We are now more aware of working at heigh, handling cattle, all those tasks on the farm. I won't help with a task now if I don't think it's safe, so Dad has to listen to me, otherwise, he knows he won't get any help!''

Beca believes if she had been wearing a helmet she’d probably only have sustained minor injuries

"We learn from our mistakes and I know I probably would have only hurt my neck and had some bruises.''

Her ability to taste and smell returned last summer, but unfortunately, it was temporary. It's come back once, maybe it'll come again,'' she hoped.

As an Ambassador for the Welsh Farm Safety Partnership, Beca wants to deliver the safety message across the agriculture industry.

"I wasn't someone who was reckless on the farm or when I was driving before the accident so if it can happen to someone like me, it can happen to anyone.''