ATHLETICS legend Yvonne Murray-Mooney has said she is "celebrating" after her stress-related personal injury case against her former council bosses was settled out of court.
The 52-year-old launched a legal battle with North Lanarkshire Leisure after she suffered a breakdown because of overwork five years ago.
But the local authority has backed out from fighting the claim and has paid the Olympics and Commonwealth Games medallist undisclosed damages.
Friends said that the track star had been "to hell and back", and was now glad to put it all behind her.
Yvonne confirmed the news herself with a post on her Facebook page, which showed three champagne glasses and was captioned: "Celebrating the fact that my Personal Injury legal case against North Lanarkshire Leisure has been settled out of court."
It is understood that she and husband Tom launched the claim after becoming frustrated with the pace of an industrial tribunal launched in 2014.
The unfair dismissal tribunal was brought after North Lanarkshire Leisure terminated Yvonne's contract after her prolonged period of illness, which she claimed was down to her working conditions.
Yvonne was employed as senior athletics development officer with the organisation, taking up the role in 2008.
She was responsible for nurturing athletes of the future and grooming some of the area's top talent, working with budding sports stars at the Time Capsule in Coatbridge and other locations.
At the time her appointment was considered something of a coup for the council, and initially her work went well.
However, she was hospitalised in Wishaw General Hospital in 2012 suffering from work-related stress and anxiety after putting in exceptionally long hours.
At the time her mother, Mary Furnell, said that her daughter had been working her "fingers to the bone", adding "it is all down to the stress that she has at work. She is just doing too much and sometimes has to work 86 hours a week.”
The council denied Yvonne had been asked to do those hours, but last night a family friend said: "She basically worked herself to a standstill, and then they asked her to do more. It was a traumatic time and she more or less withdrew from public life because of it."
One of Scotland's best-known track and field athletes, Yvonne won a bronze in the 3000m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and a gold at 10,000m in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.
The Musselburgh-born runner was awarded an MBE in 1990 and inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
She declined to speak to The Herald, but a source close to the case said: "It has been a long process to get to this point and it's been tough on the family as well.
"It has been heart-breaking at times. Yvonne has been to hell and back. She is getting better though. She now wants to be positive and put this all behind her."
A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Leisure confirmed that the case had been settled out of court, but declined to speak further.
He said: "We do not discuss individual legal matters."
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