MOTORCYCLIST Kerry Waters came close to being decapitated when she crashed her bike in a horrific road smash, she has revealed.

Ms Waters, 29, of Alexander Road, Ashingdon, lost a leg in the horrific crash, in Brays Lane, Canewdon, on Friday, June 27.

In an exclusive interview she told the Echo doctors still aren’t sure how she survived.

The injuries she sustained meant surgeons at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, were forced to amputate her right leg above the knee.

But she says her ordeal has given her a new ambition – to compete in the Paralympics.

Dental nurse Ms Waters spoke of the terrible moment she lost control of her bike and hit a wire, which severed part of her leg and narrowly missed her head.

She said she had been blinded by bright sunlight and had swerved into a grass verge, lost control and veered towards a telegraph pole’s wire support.

Hitting it at speed meant it acted like a cheese wire, slicing her leg, and narrowly missing her neck. By pure chance, the wire caught the chin strap of her helmet and instead of hitting her neck, pulled her head back and whipped off the helmet.

She then careered across the road and came to a halt two inches from a brick wall.

She said: “If my chin strap had been tighter, the wire would have taken off my head.

“No one can believe how I have survived. I don’t believe in God but it makes me wonder, was someone up there looking out for me? The surgeons came in after my operation and said to me, ‘Kerry I don’t know how you are here’. Everyone said they couldn’t believe it.

“Even the paramedics thought they were going to lose me, but I’m a fighter.

“It makes me feel so lucky to be alive. I’ll never moan about anything minor again. I survived what should have killed me.”

Ms Waters praised the “amazing support” given to her by friends and relations.

She is already able to move herself unaided into her wheelchair, and has been transferred to Southend Hospital to continue her recovery and for rehab.

She has started looking at prosthetic legs and aims to walk in a matter of months.

She said: “I’ve ridden horses since I was two and if I fell off my horse I’d get back on. I am desperate to get back on.

“I have been told I should try Paralympic horse riding. I probably wouldn’t have a chance because there are so many talented riders out there, but it would be amazing.”

However, one thing Kerry is determined to do is to take part in a 10km fundraising event in London this September.

Run to the Beat is being organised in aid of the Essex Air Ambulance, which airlifted her to hospital, and she is hoping to walk some of the distance and complete the course in a wheelchair.

She said: “I have to tell myself every day it was a near-miss, so I have to live to the full. When I found out Essex Air Ambulance wasn’t funded by the Government, I thought that’s it, we are raising money for it. I know it won’t be too much but hopefully it will save another life.

“I hope people can find it in their hearts to help us.”

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