A Helensburgh harpist has dedicated her new album to the hand surgeon who saved her career.

Pippa Reid-Foster snapped the ligaments in her wrist while surfing.

She played in excruciating pain for two years before doctors used an ultrasound to find the cause after all previous tests had failed.

She was referred to Dr Iain McGraw, a consultant hand and orthopaedic trauma surgeon with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde based at the Royal Alexandra hospital, who agreed to carry out a rare and delicate operation that could have left her unable to use her hands for good if it did not work.

(Image: Supplied)

Ms Reid-Foster said: "I love the sea and it wasn’t too long after my first album Driftwood Harp came out and I was out surfing one day near Machrihanish when I just got slammed and lost control.

"It hurt like hell at the time, but I figured it must have been a sprain or something.

“Because of my career and what I do, he said it would be best to try but warned it was 50-50 as to whether it would work or not. 

"He was very honest and said 'you could lose the movement in your wrist completely and you may not be able to play'."

The emotional toll from the incident in 2017 and long-term recovery inspired some of the tracks in her new album, Undercurrents, which comes out on Friday, September 6.

(Image: Supplied)

She said: "My head was all over the place, I gained a lot - a lot - of extra weight because I was just comfort-eating all the time.

"I mean I was gigging right up until the operation, but I was in a terrible place emotionally.

"I didn’t know if I was coming or going."

During her recovery, she approached Philip Glass, Max Richter, and Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, who all immediately agreed to let her include their works on her album.

She said: “Their music helped me through. Perhaps unsurprisingly the writing for the album is also inspired not just by my experiences of almost losing my career, but water too.

"I simply cannot thank Dr McGraw and everyone else involved enough.

"This album only happened because of their skill and belief that mine was a musical career worth saving."