SINGER Malachi Cush has told how at one point he thought he was "maybe going to die" after being injured in a crash while standing on a Dungannon street.
The 38-year-old suffered a serious leg injury in the accident outside a hardware shop on Scotch Street in the Co Tyrone town on June 3. He was also left with cuts and lacerations and had teeth knocked out.
He and a shopkeeper, who was also badly injured, were struck by a runaway car as they loaded a strimmer into the boot of his car.
The Donaghmore man, who first came to prominence on BBC talent show Fame Academy in 2002, said it had started out as a normal day but when the car hit them in the "freak accident", he initially thought it was an explosion.
"We hadn't seen or heard any sign of anything coming our way... it was very, very quick and sudden," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme.
"I thought there had been some sort of explosion because I could see all the debris on the ground.
"Then I tried to get up and obviously my legs were damaged so I couldn't get up and... I seemed to lose consciousness."
He added: "I do remember vividly all the people working round me, and my wife was there and my sister, and I couldn't see any of them, there was only silhouettes, but what I could see really clearly was the sky - the blue sky and the clouds coming down closer to me or me going to closer to them.
"I did think at that stage ... I'm maybe going to die here... I was also saying I didn't feel like I wanted to die, that it wasn't my time yet."
He added: "I do believe genuinely that we got a miracle of some description because things were quite bleak on the street.
"My wife was saying she was worrying I wasn't going to pull through out of it.
"I could've lost the leg, I could've had spinal injuries."
Mr Cush said the "outpouring of prayer" in the aftermath of the accident "was something really really special" including mentally when he was "struggling".
"The power of prayer certainly had an impact on my recovery and in those early hours brought me back to myself," he said.
The singer spent three weeks in hospital and had surgery on his leg.
He told the programme it will take at least 12 months, and possibly more surgery, before his leg has properly recovered.
At the moment he is not allowed to drive or fly, but his aim is to be back on stage again in his own show by December.
"I was saved that day for some reason and .... I feel really grateful and thankful and I feel I owe Him one," he said.
