RECEPTIONIST Sue Humphrey smiles as she recovers in her hospital bed - but she is lucky to be alive after a horrifying parachute ordeal.

What was meant to be an exciting experience to raise money for charity ended in her leg being smashed and a life-saving operation.

Mrs Humphrey, 48, who works at Lombard House Business Centre in Canterbury, found herself drifting off-course when making her first-ever static line jump at Headcorn, near Maidstone.

Instead of hitting the designated target in the airfield drop zone, she drifted perilously close to the River Bult before landing badly on the river bank.

Mrs Humphrey, who lives at Westgate-on-Sea, near Margate, suffered a badly broken leg, internal bleeding diagnosed later, and slipped in and out of consciousness as Headcorn Parachute Club staff raced to the accident scene.

Unable to summon the Kent Air Ambulance because it was undergoing urgent repairs, the emergency services were confronted by a delicate rescue operation to prevent Mrs Humphrey slipping into the river, while lifting her to the safety of a waiting ambulance.

She was finally admitted to Maidstone Hospital where her life-threatening trauma was stabilised, an operation performed to set her broken femur, and a plate inserted from hip to knee she will carry for the rest of her life.

Still confined to a hospital bed and unlikely to return to work for at least two months, she said: "Despite all the training, I had forgotten how to correct my fall and was drifting away from flat ground towards the hazardous river.

"At one stage I thought a splash landing in the river would break my fall better than anywhere else but I landed on the bank and snapped my femur like a match-stick."

The good news is that her courageous effort has raised £600 for the Canterbury Open Centre for homeless people.

Jane Buckle, of Headcorn Parachute Club, said: "Sue's accident was a rarity. I don't recall anyone suffering the sort of injury she received. We have between 12,000-15,000 jumps a year and the chances of that happening are minute."