A KNUTSFORD mum is learning to live again after recovering from terrible head injuries.

Five months ago Marie Fletcher's family did not know whether the mum-of-three would be permanently brain damaged after she was thrown from a bus.

But last month she returned to her Hayfields home after being released from a specialist head injuries unit in Buxton.

"It is amazing how well Marie has done," said husband Ron on Friday.

"Now we have to take one day at a time."

Marie, 45, fractured her skull in two places when she was thrown through the open doors of the 300 Arriva Knutsford circular bus. "People have come up to me and said I was lucky to be alive because there was so much blood when I hit my head on the kerb," she said.

Marie cannot remember the accident on April 2 or being taken to Stockport's Stepping Hill Hospital.

After four weeks she was transferred to the specialist unit at Buxton - but Marie wanted to go home.

"All she kept saying was that she wanted to get out and go back to work," said Ron.

The fractures and brain swelling have left Marie deaf in her right ear, with no sense of smell and tunnel vision.

She is also struggling to relearn words erased from her memory.

But doctors - who have told Marie to rest until January - believe a strong will has helped her progress.

"Recovery from head injuries is very long-term and it could be years before we fully know how much she will recover," said Ron.

Marie can now go out, but not on her own.

"Roads still frighten me because of problems with my eyes and hearing," she said.

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