{"id":578287,"date":"2026-08-23T23:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578287\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T23:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:58:09","slug":"remarkable-recovery-sydney-shark-attack-survivor-thanks-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578287\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Remarkable’ recovery: Sydney shark attack survivor thanks supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schoolteacher Leah Stewart, who was attacked by a shark<\/a> at a Sydney beach in June, has thanked her supporters for giving her “a second chance at life”.<\/p>\n

On June 13, Stewart was swimming close to shore and within the flags at Coogee Beach when she was attacked by what was believed to be a 3.5m great white shark. <\/p>\n

She suffered severe life-threatening injuries, including bites, fractures and extreme blood loss that led to several surgeries, being placed on life support and having an arm amputated. <\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page was set up by Josh Stewart, her brother, shortly after the attack to go towards her rehabilitation and the care of her daughter, which has now reached A$558,000 (NZ$668,000).<\/p>\n

Leah posted on the GoFundMe page Sunday to give an update and a thank you for the donations.<\/p>\n

“After what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I\u2019m so happy that I\u2019ve progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this,” she said in the post.<\/p>\n

She said she thinks it is an appropriate time to stop accepting donations. <\/p>\n

“What you\u2019ve offered has given us enough to recover, to stay in our home, and to give us options for further medical treatment down the road.”<\/p>\n

In a June update from her brother, Stewart was said to have stabilised and was no longer in critical condition, though further surgery and extensive rehabilitation were still to go.<\/p>\n

She has since been working to get back to “some sort of normal life”.<\/p>\n

“I still have a long way to go, but my recovery has been remarkable, and a huge part of that is because of the absolute army of love, support, prayers and encouragement surrounding my family and I from all over the world. <\/p>\n

“I feel like I\u2019ve been given a second chance at life, and I\u2019m not going to waste it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schoolteacher Leah Stewart, who was attacked by a shark at a Sydney beach in June, has thanked her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1081,50,85,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-578287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-accident","tag-animals","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}