A WOMAN lucky to be alive after an articulated lorry ploughed into the bus stop she was standing at has spoken about her horrific ordeal for the first time.

Mary Farmer, 50, was crushed under the wreckage of the shelter after the accident on the A449 Kidderminster-Worcester road yards from her Summerfield Lane home. Mary Farmer studies the story of her accident in the Shuttle/Times and News.

She was rushed by Air Ambulance to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where she had a nine-hour operation to save a leg which was "virtually hanging off" and had three separate spells in intensive care.

And her husband Philip, who was himself saved by an air ambulance following a motorbike accident racing on the Isle of Man four years ago, is convinced she would have died if the service not been on the scene within six minutes.

Now the couple, who have two children and four grandchildren, have joined forces with a Stourport pub to boost the vital service.

Mrs Farmer, who remembers little about the accident, said: "I doubt whether I'd be here if it wasn't for Air Ambulance.

"Apparently nobody realised I was under the bus shelter until they heard me moaning."

Mr Farmer, 53, who works as a printer at Cheshires in Kidderminster, had been on the morning shift when he heard of the accident on Monday, February 5.

Mrs Farmer had been waiting to catch a bus to Kidderminster to go shopping for her mother when the Somerfield lorry, which was travelling towards Worcester, jack-knifed into the wooden shelter opposite the Mare and Colt pub at 11.25am.

When he arrived on the scene and saw the wreckage, Mr Farmer feared the worst.

"I didn't think she was going to be alive," he said.

"I don't know how she survived. Somebody up there must have been looking after her.

"Mary's leg was virtually hanging off - they were talking about amputating it.

"At one stage she nearly died in the operating theatre. We've had a really hard time the last three-and-a-half months."

But he added: "Without a doubt, the Air Ambulance saved her life."

Mrs Farmer, who was in hospital for nine weeks, had operations to reconstruct her left ankle using stomach muscles and is awaiting further surgery. She has to use a wheelchair outside the house and also uses crutches.

She has been unable to resume her job as a cleaner at Summerfield Royal Ordnance.

"I like cycling and walking but I'm fed up because I can't do anything. I can't put my foot to the ground," she added.

A police spokesman said Mrs Farmer was "lucky to be alive" after the crash, which left the road closed for two hours and the lorry driver with facial and whiplash injuries and shock.

Mrs Farmer and her husband have raised £400 for the Air Ambulance from friends and work colleagues.

Regulars at the Brindley Arms in Stourport, run by Dave and Jan Grazier, raised £3,000 for the cause in 2000, which was presented, along with the Farmers' money, to Air Ambulance fund-raising co-ordinators Maurice and Carol Evans.

Anyone wishing to support County Air Ambulance should call the headquarters on 0870 777 1777.