A knife-wielding woman narrowly avoided stabbing a love rival in the head during a heated row.

Yvonne Ellender, of Broadstairs, repeatedly thrust the blade through Chloe Collard’s car window, “missing her head by inches”.

The 36-year-old, who was later employed as a Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance lottery fundraiser, shouted “I’m going to kill her, I’m going to stab her,” moments before the attack.

Bad blood existed between Ellender and Miss Collard, who was left “absolutely petrified” following the harrowing ordeal.

Ellender was handed a suspended prison sentence at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday.

The chaos unfolded when Miss Collard and then-partner Jay Derrick drove to Ellender’s Ramsgate home to retrieve personal effects.

Miss Collard got out of the car when a row ensued with Ellender, who “came out of her house with a kitchen knife threatening to stab [her],” the prosecution said.

Miss Collard then retreated inside the vehicle as Ellender “repeatedly struck the car with the knife, trying to get the knife through the gap in the window,” prosecutor Peter Forbes explained.

Ellender, who previously had an affair with Mr Derrick, was seen erratically thrusting the blade “only inches from stabbing Miss Collard’s head,” the prosecutor said.

The mother slashed at the car window and door with the 12-inch orange blade as Miss Collard sheltered inside.

She then retreated to her home, discarding the blade in the garden as Mr Derrick called 999.

Following her arrest, Ellender told detectives she was remorseful and “made clear she had done wrong,” the court heard.

She accepted waving the blade outside her home but denied attempting to stab, the prosecutor said.

Ellender was originally charged with attempted wounding with intent, but the Crown Prosecution Service accepted guilty pleas before trial to the lesser charges of affray and possession of a bladed article.

The more serious charge, which can attract a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, was asked to lie on file.

Kerry Waitt, mitigating, said there had been “no further incidents” since Ellender’s outburst on June 22, 2020.

The court heard there was “significant provocation” on Miss Collard’s part, who went to Ellender’s address and emptied a bin over her garden before the row erupted.

Judge Simon Taylor KC told Ellender, of Prince Charles Road, her actions were an “extreme overreaction to provocation”.

But the judge told the visibly distressed defendant he could suspend her 18-month sentence for two years on a four-point basis.

He said Ellender showed a realistic chance of rehabilitation and good work record, with an immediate spell in custody likely to harm her children.

Judge Taylor told Ellender her sentence “could be achieved in the community”.

She was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 probation activity days, and was placed under a six-month curfew.