Ex-boxer, 46, wheelchair-bound after M1 air crash achieves dream of taking FIRST STEPS using bionic suit 30 years after tragedy that claimed 47 lives Stephen McCoy was saved by medics after the 1989 Kegworth air disaster He has since been left paralysed from the waist down but is determined to walk Thirty years on from the crash, he has taken his first steps using a bionic suit By Richard Spillett for MailOnline Published: 11:41 GMT, 2 January 2019 | Updated: 15:14 GMT, 2 January 2019 1 Viewcomments A victim of the Kegworth air disaster who almost died when a passenger jet crashed in 1989 has taken his first steps 30 years on from the tragedy. Stephen McCoy was 16 in January 1989 when the flight from London Heathrow to Belfast crashed on the M1 motorway, killing 47 people on board and injuring 74 others. Stephen was given very little chance of survival and medics were considering switching off his life support when he started to show signs of life. As the 30-year anniversary of the air disaster approaches, the now-46-year-old has started walking with the aid of a bionic suit. Stephen McCoy, who was paralysed in the Kegworth air disaster, has taken his first steps with a bionic suit, 30 years after the passenger jet he was flying on crashed next to the M1 His family say he has never given up on his dream to walk again since the tragedy in 1989 Stephen, who was an all-Ireland boxing champion before the crash, was left paralysed from the waist down when a Boeing 737 crashed on to an embankment near the M1. He was saved from dying only by the intervention of an ambulance crew and spent six months in a coma. He was only able to go home three years later and his sister, Yvonne, now looks after him. Mr McCoy outside the High Court in 1989, when he was awarded £1.4million to pay for his care following the crash A BBC Northern Ireland documentary to be aired next week shows him taking his first steps since the crash as he family look on in tears of joy. After fitting him into the exoskeleton, his physio assures him 'you cannot fall', before he walks in a circle around the room. His sister Yvonne says she is 'very proud' of her brother and 'privileged' that he got the opportunity to walk after so many years in a wheelchair. Yvonne tells the programme: 'Hopefully the exercise he has had on the skeleton legs will continue and he will get better and better. 'He really wants a big miracle - the big miracle of being able to walk again. He has never ever been sad.' She says his determination to survive has been aided by his religious beliefs and, despite needing to get in an plane, he goes on an annual pilgrimage to Lourdes in south-west France. Stephen gives his experience of the bionic legs a 10 out of 10 rating, after taking more than 150 steps with them. His long recovery comes after he was awarded £1.4million damages to pay for his care in 1995 after a case brought against the airline, British Midland. 47 people on board the flight died and 74 others were injured after trouble with an engine Princess Anne visited air crash survivors, including John Young, in hospital after the disaster Before the crash, he had more than 50 fights as an amateur boxer and hoped to follow his family tradition of becoming a fisherman if he did not make it as a boxer. Next Tuesday, to mark the the 30-year anniversary of the Kegworth Air Disaster, a service will be held at St Andrew's Church, Kegworth, attended by families of the victims and some of those injured in the crash. An inquiry into the crash heard that the 737 was preparing for an emergency landing at East Midlands airport after an engine caught fire. But instead of shutting down the left-hand one which was ablaze, the pilot stopped the right-hand engine. Stephen McCoy: My Fight To Live is on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday, January 7 at 10.40pm. Scenes from shortly after the crash show the wreckage on the bank next to the motorway Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility