A WOMAN who lost part of a leg in a horrific road accident has said the £500 fine handed to the driver who ploughed into her car will never make up for her injuries.

A WOMAN who lost part of a leg in a horrific road accident has said the £500 fine handed to the driver who ploughed into her car will never make up for her injuries.

Jillian Macready described the sentence passed to motorist Owen Lloyd by magistrates sitting in Bury St Edmunds as "the best I could hope for," and pledged to remain positive throughout the coming months as her recovery progresses.

Speaking from her home in Stanton yesterday, the 45-year-old said she was not seeking retribution for the serious injuries which left both her and husband Charles in hospital for 10 long weeks, but wanted a fair outcome from the court case last Thursday.

"There is nothing that can pay for losing a leg," said Mrs Macready, who underwent a series of life-saving operations following the head-on crash at Great Barton on January 4.

"The only thing I can do is think positive. I have already been hurt, and this will hurt him too. I do not want retribution, but just wanted things to be fair.

"I have been told this is quite a good sentence for careless driving.

"A dangerous driving charge would have been a much higher fine and possibly a prison sentence - not that I wanted him to go to jail.

"But no sentence will ever be enough to bring my leg back to me."

Owen Lloyd, 50, of The Street in Gasthorpe, near Diss, pleaded guilty to careless driving by St Edmundsbury magistrates last Thursday.

In addition to the £500 fine, he was ordered to pay £43 costs and five penalty points were added to his licence.

Meanwhile, Mrs Macready has now been fitted with a prosthetic limb after doctors were forced to amputate her leg beneath the knee.

She says she is progressing well while Charles, 48, who was left unconscious for a week following the crash and sustained head injuries, a badly broken leg, fractured sternum and broken ribs, has now made a good recovery.

"I have got my leg and it is going very well because I am making myself accept what has happened," said Mrs Macready.

"It is still quite painful and there is a long way to go, but I can now walk instead of sitting in a wheelchair and it is marvellous to be standing upright.

"I was very emotional when I got my leg, but that emotion was coupled with elation. I now have more control over my life and am really pleased."

Mrs Macready's prosthesis will be replaced once damaged nerves in her knee have repaired - a process which could take up to a year.

But she remains determined and dedicated to a gruelling exercise programme designed to help her regain movement and strength.

She said: "I started learning to walk again on June 14, exactly five months after they took my leg off.

"And I am disciplined and motivated about doing the exercises as I want to be able to recover and walk the way I did before the accident.

"The staff at Addenbrooke's Hospital have done a marvellous job for us. Had they not done what they did, I may not have been alive.

"If this sort of thing had to happen to us, then I just feel fortunate it was not any worse."