A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to support popular Isle of Man TT competitor Maria Costello, after the full details of the life-changing injuries she sustained during sidecar practice for the 2026 race were detailed.

Costello, who was celebrating 30 years racing on the Mountain Course this year, crashed on the approach to Brandish corner last Tuesday night during practice for the two ultimately scrapped sidecar races.

The crash occurred when Costello and passenger Shaun Parker struck a hare at well over 120mph while approaching the fast left hand corner only two miles from the end of their second lap of the night.

She was initially described by the race organiser as being in a 'serious but stable' condition, and was transferred to Liverpool's Aintree hospital.

The full extent of Costello's injuries have been revealed by her friends and sponsors as they launch a crowdfunding campaign to support her rehabilitation, with the most significant of those being a spinal fracture that has left her paralysed.

The GoFundMe page said she has also broken her arm, sternum, nose, eye socket, and multiple ribs as well as sustaining a laceration to her liver.

Costello's passenger, Shaun Parker, continues to receive treatment for chest, leg, arm and facial injuries in Aintree hospital.

Speaking in a video on social media, he said: "I'm doing OK. My left ankle has been fixed, my collapsed lung has been fixed. My ribs will obviously take some time, my clavicle has been fixed, and my jaw is obviously still broken which is quite uncomfortable, and I still have some blurred vision."

Costello has been a regular road racing competitor in both the solo and sidecar classes. She was awarded an MBE for services to motorcycle racing in 2009.

The crowdfunding page, created on Monday, read: "Maria will need specialist help with physio care and perhaps surgeries to hopefully help Maria regain use of her legs.

"One thing that is clear from Maria's injuries is that this will have a lifelong impact on her, not just preventing and affecting a return to sport but impacting Maria's every day life.

"Maria will need to adapt almost all aspects of her life. After a life of giving everything to a sport she loves, she will now turn that determination to recovery and recuperation.

"From the initial determination of her injuries it is already clear that Maria will need to move house or make house alterations, with accessibility adjustments needed wherever she is based. She will need an adapted bed, shower, kitchen, stairlift and specialist vehicle for transport. Maria will need further surgery over the coming weeks and months and require specialist rehab and physio support."

That message added that Costello was "beyond determined to bounce back and apply every ounce of focus to being back as well as possible" and that "after a career spent raising money from sponsors and backers for racing we now find ourselves asking for support for a very different but all too real problem".