Salou, Spain, Apr 26 (Daily Mail) : A British gymnast has been left paralysed from the neck down after falling 50ft from a hotel balcony.

Dina Amos-Larkin was attending a four-day sports festival in Salou, Spain when she fell while talking to her mother on the phone on April 3.

The 21-year-old law student, who represents Great Britain at trampolining, was in a medically-induced coma for two weeks and was told of her injuries when she was brought round a week ago.

She told Simon Wright of the Sunday Mirror that authorities initially said the fall, from a fourth floor balcony at Hotel Jaime 1, was a suicide bid.

'That isn't the case - I spent the day doing sport and went drinking in the evening, but wasn't drunk,' she said.

'The balcony rail was lower than my waist and I think I just leaned back too far.'
The student, from Poole, Dorset, claimed she is now stranded in hospital as she is waiting for her insurer AXA to review her case.

A GoFundMe page has since been set up to raise £20,000 to get Miss Amos-Larkin, who is also captain of the Angels cheerleading squad at Surrey University, home.

More than £13,900 has already been donated.

The page reads: 'Dina Larkin suffered horrendous injuries including paralysis when she fell from a balcony during a student festival in Barcelona.

'Dina is an international gymnast and aspiring law student. But most of all she is a daughter, a sister and a friend to many.

'Her recovery has been halted because the costs of getting her back to the UK amount to over £10,000. And then there's the adaptive care she will need when she is home.'

Her mother Audrey, 48, and father Stephen, 49, told the Sunday Mirror their 'hearts are broken'.

Her last Tweet was a week before the incident, when she posted a photo of the cheerleading squad after the Team Surrey varsity and wrote: 'These kids know the score! @Surreyangels brought it home.'

She added a picture of the sea on Instagram five days later and wrote: 'Enjoying that ocean spray. Let's hope it can cure this hangover #TOUR #spain #sunshine #ocean #saloufest #coastline #teamsurreytour2015.'

A spokesman for AXA said: 'We are looking into the circumstances and until those investigations have been completed, it would not be appropriate to comment further.
'We are speaking to Dina and assisting with her repatriation.'