Gwladys Nocera - rising star of The Solheim Cup

Gwladys Nocera from France revealed that she feels extremely lucky to have made this years' European Solheim Cup team - and not just because she claimed the final automatic place on the team. Had she not survived a shooting accident when she was 16 years old, she may not have been able to play golf, let alone play in the most prestigious tournament in the women's professional game.

Gwladys, who is now 30, was accidentally shot through the stomach fourteen years ago, and still bears the two scars, one on her front and one on her back, where the force blew straight through her body.

Doctors told her that the shotgun bullet, which remained in her back, passed through the only clear line that didn't interfere with vital bones and organs. It passed through her right side, close to her liver and spine, leaving Gwladys in agony for 15 minutes before the emergency services arrived.

She said: "I still don't like to hear shot guns - it sends shivers down my body - and I don't like to see guns either."

She says that after the accident happened and she saw the blood, the thing she was most scared about was losing her legs.

"Everything happened so quickly that my life could have been cut short in one second. Being sporty and athletic, I could have lost everything," she said.

Thinking that those could have been her last living moments, she managed to remain awake until she was inside the ambulance, where she fainted. She then spent four days in hospital and now, despite being physically strong, still has occasional discomfort in her right side, which is especially noticeable when she does abdominal exercises.

"I'm just happy to be alive and able to play golf," says Gwladys. "I'm not a survivor I'm just lucky. I must have been born under a lucky star."

Let's hope that luck is present when she makes her debut in The Solheim Cup next week in Indiana , when Europe attempt to win The Cup for the first time on American soil.

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