A grandmother thrown from her push bike when she was hit by an uninsured car has said her helmet saved her life.

Sue Targar is now recovering after the horror smash left her with a broken elbow, wrist and fractured collarbone.

The 67-year-old left home in Galway Road, Sheerness, for a pilates class at Sheppey Leisure Complex shortly after 11am on Monday, August 20 when she was knocked off her bicycle in Winstanley Road, at the junction with Alma Road.

After surgery and nine days at Medway Maritime Hospital, she is back home with husband Bernard.

Mrs Targar, who has three children and five grandchildren, is urging others to be more vigilant on the road and to make sure they wear a bike helmet.

“I am slowly but surely improving,” she said, “I will recover but it will be a three-to-four-month job.

“It’s going to be a long, long frustrating process. I’m unable to use both arms as each are in heavy sling supports – it has made life very difficult to say the least – but I really am lucky that it’s not life-changing for the long-term.”

Mrs Targar added: “My helmet totally saved my life. I don’t think I would have survived that crack on the head without it and that’s a message to all bike users.

“There’s nothing I could have done to have prevented this from happening, but I think cyclists need to be more vigilant on the roads.

“When I think about what happened, and how quickly it happened, I think ‘how did I only get these injuries?’ I think about the what ifs and it scares me.”

Mrs Targar does not recall being struck, but she cannot thank passers-by enough for their help.

“I don’t remember being hit, but I’m always cautious at those crossroads. It’s such a dangerous junction,” she said.

“I just remember waking on the deck and the people who were there, they really looked after me.

“They called the ambulance, they called my husband Bern, they were fantastic.“We’ve had such amazing support from everybody too – we can’t thank them all enough.”

She added: “It was really traumatic and now it is bad, but it could have been a lot worse.”

Police sent to investigate seized a car after the driver admitted driving without insurance. Inquiries are ongoing.