A bank cashier who has not worked for almost two years after suffering a back injury while lifting bags of money has won more than £18,000 from her former employer.

Mary Deller, 26, is said to have been crippled with pain and unable to walk properly since moving the coins at NatWest.

She said she was asked to lift two sacks – each containing 500 £1 coins and weighing about 21lbs – without proper health and safety training.

Now Mary, of Turketel Road, Folkstone, has secured £18,500 in an out-of-court settlement to cover her lost earnings.

She was working as a customer service officer and cashier for NatWest's Cheriton branch when she suffered the injury in September 2010.

Despite the pain, Mary took painkillers and continued to work for another week before she was eventually bedridden.

Mary's doctor referred her to a specialist spinal surgeon, who diagnosed two bulging discs - a condition that occurs when discs in the spine move out of line.

Medics told her the accident aggravated a previously undiagnosed genetic degenerative spinal condition.

She said: "Lots of customers had been in during their lunch break to bank bags of coins, which had started to mount up behind the till area. I bent down to pick up two lots of coin bags, which had 500 £1 coins in, to put on a nearby trolley.

"I felt a click in my lower back and then an intense pain. At the time I thought I’d just pulled a muscle and carried on as normal.

"I managed to carry on working for the next week, but my back was still painful and I was starting to rely on painkillers get me through the day.

"Eventually I couldn't get out of bed because it hurt so much and my doctors signed me off work for eight weeks.

"i just don’t feel like me anymore. i used to be really active and loved nights out dancing and exercising at the gym but now i’m hobbling around in constant pain…” – ex-natwest cashier mary deller

"I was so shocked when doctors told me I had such a serious back problem and that the incident at the bank had made it so much worse. I've been prescribed seven different kinds of tablets, including anti-depressants, pain killers and anti-inflammatories, which have made me feel light-headed and depressed."

As well as preventing her from returning to work, Mary has also been forced to stop living the active lifestyle she used to enjoy - and can no longer go dancing, swimming and walking.

She added: "I just don’t feel like me anymore. I used to be really active and loved nights out dancing and exercising at the gym but now I’m hobbling around in constant pain."

Mary - who originally got the job at NatWest through an employment agency before being taken on permanently - says she was not given any proper health and safety training, which could have prevented the accident.

She said: "I’m really angry that I wasn't taught how to lift heavy things properly by NatWest because all this pain and time off work could have been avoided.

"I wasn't given any health and safety induction or manual handling training or even just any general hints and tips about how to lift things without hurting myself. I was only given on-the-job training at the bigger Folkestone branch using a buddy system, which involved watching another cashier at work.

"I think people often take for granted that they won't be hurt when lifting heavy things at work, so I hope my story shows how important it is for employers to provide the right training."

Mary, who has not worked since October 2010, instructed injury experts at law firm Irwin Mitchell to help recover her lost earnings and cover the costs for specialist rehabilitation from her injuries.

Sophie Davies, a workplace accident specialist at Irwin Mitchell, said: "Unfortunately we see many cases like Mary's where people have been injured because they haven't received any proper health and safety training by their employer.

"Back injuries like this can have a long-term impact on people's lives and many struggle to get back to the active lifestyles they once had.

"We hope that employers learn valuable lessons from Mary's experience to prevent accidents like this happening again in future. Employees have the right to go to work in a safe environment without worrying about the risk of injury."

A NatWest spokesman said it would not comment on individual cases.