A MEDAL-WINNING young kickboxer from York has been left with a fractured skull, wrist and ankle after a fall while staying at a hotel in Portugal.

Doctors said 12-year-old Connor Crake was lucky to be alive after plunging 30ft in the dark and landing on a concrete delivery area at the hotel.

Connor, of Acomb, was in Portugal with his mother, Sarah, and brother, Keenan, ten, to take part in an international youth kickboxing event.

But shortly after arriving, Connor accidentally ran over the edge of a drop while the surrounding area was in darkness. Back home in York yesterday, he said: “I don’t remember anything – just hitting the floor.”

Sarah, 38, said the two brothers and a friend were standing near a water feature in the hotel grounds, when she called the boys over, but only Keenan and his friend reached her.

She said: “I looked and thought ‘Where’s Connor?’ and then I heard him screaming for help and I noticed the drop and just thought ‘Oh my God, he’s gone over the edge’.

“I ran down immediately and I remember a woman who was there at the time saying she had just heard a slap.

“At first Connor thought he was dreaming. He had a cut to the front of his head. I was hysterical and he was asking if he was going to die. It was the scariest thing I have been through.”

Connor, a pupil at Manor School, was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors told his mother he may have been saved because he was running when he fell over the drop – preventing him from landing directly on his head.

Despite being released 24 hours later with his arm and leg in plaster, Connor was confined to his hotel room by doctors after continuing to show signs of concussion.

Both Connor and Keenan are medal-winning Thai kickboxers and were in Portugal to take part in the World Kickboxing Council championships. Keenan went on to win a bronze medal which he dedicated to his brother.

The accident happened on the weekend of October 30 and 31, and after flying back to England on Thursday, Connor is now recovering at home with his family.

He said the plunge was “terrifying” and said: “I don’t remember anything – just hitting the floor. It didn’t hurt at first, but when I tried to move it really hurt.”

On his time following the fall he said he was “fed up”.

He said: “Everyone was playing in the pool and I was in a wheelchair. When I go back to school, which hopefully will be next Tuesday, I will be in a wheelchair, but I should make a full recovery in six to eight weeks. But I want to get back kickboxing.”