A GRANDMOTHER crushed after a lorry ploughed into the bus stop where she had been waiting has spoken for the first time of her horrific ordeal.

Mary Farmer was trapped under the wreckage of the shelter after the accident on the A449, yards from her home in Summerfield Lane near Kidderminster.

She was flown to Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital, where she underwent a nine-hour operation to save a leg, which was "virtually hanging off", and had three separate spells in intensive care.

Husband Philip, 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-on-Severn pub to boost the vital service.

Mrs Farmer, aged 50, said: "I doubt whether I'd be here if it wasn't for the Air Ambulance.

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

Mr Farmer, 53, a printer at Cheshires in Kidderminster, was at work when the accident happened on Monday, February 5.

Mrs Farmer was on her way to Kidderminster to shop for her mother when the Somerfield lorry, travelling towards Worcester, jack-knifed into the wooden shelter opposite the Mare and Colt pub.

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. "Somebody up there must have been looking after her.

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

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

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 uses a wheelchair outside the house and also uses crutches.

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

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 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.

See also - This is Kidderminster...