Lismore Mayor's long recovery after lightning strike

BEING struck by lightning led Lismore Mayor Isaac Smith on a decade long journey to recovery that only ended this year.

LUCKY: Lismore Mayor Isaac Smith survived being struck by lightning. Picture: Supplied

BEING struck by lightning led Lismore Mayor Isaac Smith on a decade long journey to recovery that only ended last week.

Cr Smith and his wife were struck by lightning during a camping trip with friends at Stuarts Point near Nambucca Heads on New Years Day 2007.

After a brief trip to hospital, the pair escaped serious injury with Cr Smith suffering burns to the left side of his chest that looked like "red asterisks".

Even when the burns healed, he said he has "felt a heat, a burning sensation" reoccur over the years.

"It must be a mental thing," Cr Smith said.

In the years after the ordeal, the pair regularly visited the cardiologists to monitor their heart health.

While his wife was given the all clear by doctors a few years ago, Cr Smith's on-going heart issues meant he needed to continue to attend regular appointments.

Those appointments continued until earlier this year when doctors finally told him he no longer needed check-ups.

It meant Cr Smith was finally eligible to do something he hadn't been able to for a decade: donate blood.

With his son by his side at the Lismore Red Cross Blood Bank, last Tuesday marked the first time Cr Smith had given blood since the lightning strike.

Cr Smith took to social media to celebrate the milestone: "Finally! 10 years after being struck by lightning, I was able to jump through all the hoops and start donating blood again".