A female driver has told how she lost a leg after sleepwalking to her car and crashing into a tree.
Kelly Jackson spent three weeks in a coma following the horror crash less than half a mile from her home.
Tragically, her right leg could not be saved and was amputated above the knee.
The 26-year-old had been out with mates earlier that night on May 18, 2013 and sleepwalked from her bed into her Mini Cooper before the collision.
The former marketing executive was thrown out of her car and trapped beneath the wreckage after it smashed into a tree on Brook Road in Billesley, Birmingham.
Kelly spent four months recovering at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and suffered a brain injury and severe burns. She has also undergone a string of operations to reconstruct parts of her face and still needs more surgery.
But she has now spoken for the first time about her trauma.
Kelly says: “I know what I have been told, that I was out with friends, my ex-boyfriend dropped me home and my nan saw me go to bed.
“I don’t know why I got into my car but I was found in my pyjamas.
“I used to sleepwalk as a child and I can only assume I must have slept walked that night, which is incredibly scary.
“I have no memory of being in the car or the crash itself, I suspect I will never really know what happened but one thing I do know is that I am lucky to be alive.
“I’m not upset about my leg – I count my lucky stars that I am alive.”
“I haven’t really had dark days. But I am impatient so I have found the recovery process very slow.”
“I know I still have a long way to go.
“I know it sounds silly but I am only 5ft tall and I used to live in high heels so I’m gutted I will probably never wear a stiletto again.
“But I never had a moment when I thought: ‘God, I’ve lost my leg what am I going to do?’
“After I awoke from the coma my family had to tell me every day what had happened to me.
“The brain injury meant I wouldn’t remember from one day to the next. I used to have a diary next to my bed.
“Visitors would write down the day and time and what we talked about.
“I would wake up the next day and read it to find out who had been to see me as I could never remember.”
Kelly, who is from Hall Green, Birmingham, is set to abseil 150ft (45.72 metres) down the city’s Hampton by Hilton Hotel this September.
Money donated will be split between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, disability charity LimbPower and The Katie Piper Foundation, which helps those living with burns and scars.
The brave campaigner added: “I’m terrified of heights and not sure how it will be to abseil with one leg.
“But I want to prove to other patients that life does get better and you can do anything you put your mind to.
“I’ve spent the last two years taking.
“I’ve taken so much time from the nurses, surgeons, consultants and therapist. I just want to give something back to the hospital and charities that have helped me in my recovery.”
