A GRANDMOTHER who made a "miracle" recovery after being struck by a car has started to walk without the aid of her sticks.
Kate Foster was left in a coma and with severe head and leg injuries when she was knocked down in April.
But the 54-year-old defied the odds by slowly teaching herself to move her limbs again while in her hospital bed. Doctors described it as a miracle recovery.
In August, she was well enough to return to her family at her home in Orchard Way, Chellaston.
She has since progressed from a walking frame to twin walking sticks and, now, to occasionally walking without help.
Kate said: "I have been having weekly physio at the London Road Community Hospital and I'm seeing doctors at the Royal Derby Hospital, who are amazed with how fast I have recovered.
"I can get upstairs now and take walks with my husband into Chellaston to visit shops. I feel so much better. My knee still hurts but I have made such a lot of progress."
Kate, who has three children – Nicky, 37, Kerry, 32, and Becky, 23 – and three grandchildren was injured as she was walking to the shops in Derby Road, Chellaston.
A car veered across the road and ploughed into her, smashing her pelvis and striking her head – leaving her fighting for her life and unable to move.
The driver of the car, Dianne Thomas, 45, of Bradgate Drive, Wigston, near Leicester, admitted dangerous driving.
She was sentenced last month at Derby Crown Court to six months in prison and banned from driving for three years.
Kate's friend and former co-worker, Jill Burke, is now planning to run a half-marathon to raise money for the ward of the Royal Derby Hospital where Kate recovered.
Jill, 50, who lives in Sinfin Moor Lane, used to work with Kate in the kitchens at Chellaston Academy.
She said: "When I heard what had happened, I felt sick. I was just so shocked, I heard there was a chance she might not pull through.
"I wasn't able to see her in hospital but I have been seeing her regularly. She is amazing, the speed she has recovered.
"She just has such a good personality, such a good sense of humour and such a bubbly character. It doesn't surprise me in some ways how well she has become.
"She is not the sort of person to give up. She just wanted to be out of the walking frame, on to the sticks and sometimes, now, she doesn't even need the sticks."
Jill, a frequent runner, has entered the Keyworth Turkey Trot half-marathon, on Sunday to raise money for the King's Lodge rehabilitation unit.
She hopes to collect £1,000 and had already bagged more than £500 in donations.
Kate said: "Jill is brilliant. I've also managed to raise about £200 and it's a way of saying thank-you.
"I also want to thank all those people who helped me on the day of the accident, the witnesses and the men who helped me free of the car."
