A woman who was stabbed in the chest during a sunrise visit to the beach has revealed how thoughts of her one-year-old son kept her alive in the aftermath of the attack.

The 25-year-old recounted the harrowing incident in an interview with Times of Malta, describing how a stranger armed with a broken glass bottle attacked her on a rocky beach in St Julian’s on August 7.

Clinging to life as she awaited medical help, she was driven by the thought of seeing her son again.

The young Colombian mother, who required surgery after an artery was severed during the assault, tearfully recalled the moments following the attack.

“In that moment, my son was my life, my angel. I needed to continue,” she said, asking to remain anonymous.

Fabian Medina Paira, 21, also from Colombia and unknown to the woman, has been charged with attempted murder. Police say he was caught on camera attacking her on the beach in Triq il-Wilġa.

The victim had been swimming with a friend when they noticed someone on the shore near their belongings break a bottle. They quickly came out of the sea to get their bags.

“I would never think that I was on the beach and something would happen to me to make me lose my life,” she recalled, her English broken but her emotions clear.

She recalls little of the attack.

“I was on the floor covering my face. That’s all I remember. I didn’t feel anything.  I saw blood. I didn’t think too much of it. I saw a mark on my chest,” she said.

Her friend’s voice urged her to stay awake.

“‘Don’t sleep, don’t sleep’ – those words are in my mind,” she said.

“At that moment, I was thinking about my son because I knew that if I do sleep, I will sleep,” she added.

Rushed by ambulance to the hospital, the severity of her injuries became apparent, and she was told she would need to have an X-ray.

I was on the floor covering my face. That’s all I remember.

“That is when I worried and thought: oh my God, this is not a small situation,” she said.

Surgeons operated to repair the damaged artery. “They put the mask on and I slept.”

Days after testifying against her alleged attacker in court, she spoke to Times of Malta from her apartment where she is recovering.

'I must still have time. I must still have a life.'

A small scar on her upper chest marks where she was stabbed, and a longer linear scar that leads down her chest shows where surgeons had to operate to repair the internal bleeding. She was also stabbed in her left side.

After the operation, she “realised that I had almost lost my life”, and was hit by unbearable pain.

“I couldn’t breathe well. And I could not speak – just small words. I had too much pain here in my back. I couldn’t move well,” she said.

After five days in hospital, her recovery requires constant care and regular appointments.

Initially dependent on others for basic tasks, she is now gradually regaining her strength.

“Every day I can do something else: now I can move, now I can walk. And who is giving me that? It’s my son,” she said.

Her son remains in Colombia, and she hopes he can join her soon in Malta.

“My son needs to know his mum. Once I woke up [after the attack] I saw that I’m again here and I have one opportunity. I must still have time. I must still have a life.”

The woman had lived in Malta for three years before returning to Colombia, only to return after becoming a mother, in search of a better future for her child.

She arrived in Malta to pave the way for her family, with the necessary work and job permits currently being processed. She plans to work in a casino.

“I come here to think about the future of my son. When I started here in Malta again, it was difficult. Because when I saw a baby on the street, I miss him. I say: why am I here alone without my baby? But I know he is good and safe,” she said, adding that she speaks to her son every day.

Her son had just started walking before she came to Malta and “now he is running”.

As she comes to terms with the ordeal, she says she feels thankful for being given “a new opportunity” to live.

“You never know when a bad situation is going to happen to you. You never think it’s going to happen to you... Maybe God has some message for me. But I don’t know yet what is the message. I just say: thank you God because it’s a new opportunity for me,” she says, thanking police and hospital staff for their support.

Despite the incident, she still believes that Malta is a much safer place than Colombia for her family.

“I don’t know why but I feel stronger now. I want to stay here in Malta. I know Malta is not like that. I have family here too and real friends… I don’t want to stop because someone on the street… made me this. I want to stay here in Malta and now my son is my motivation to continue. I’m going to start again.”