DEBBIE Demain may be walking again — but she is still afraid to cross the road.

On January 21 last year, the 25-year-old was jogging through Grove when she crossed at the Mably Way traffic lights.

It is the last thing she remembers of that day.

The car that hit her broke her spine and left her needing three blood transfusions.

She also suffered a massive laceration to her neck when she hit the windscreen.

Her life was only saved when staff from the nearby Chuch Street Practice ran out of the clinic and treated her at the scene.

She said: “I was on a 20- minute jog when I stopped at the traffic lights and did a few stretches.

“I remember stepping out and do not remember anything from there.

“But I know that if it had not been for the staff at the health centre, I would not be here today.

“I really owe them everything. They all mucked in.

“It was that close to hitting my main artery. I was that close to instant death.”

She added: “That day has completely changed my life. Mentally and physically, it has been really difficult to recover.”

She spent eight days in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and then stayed for a month at her parents’ home, needing help just to walk down the stairs.

She said: “I am quite a strong person, but it is hard losing your confidence and becoming weak.

“It has taken a lot of my life away from me. But it has happened and I have to get over it.

“Going out walking is quite scary for me, and all I keep thinking is, ‘Will it happen again?’ “I lost my confidence and have been depressed. It completely shook my life up.”

Eighteen months later, she still suffers back pain and cannot lift heavy objects or go jogging.

She has no feeling on the right side of her body from her neck to her chest.

The scarring on her neck and back makes her too self-concious to put her hair up or wear a bikini.

But she is determined to overcome the effects of the crash, and she said she wanted people to be aware of the dangers of the half-mile stretch of road where the accident occurred.

She said: “I would love them to lower the speed limit there. It is quite a long stretch of road and there are a lot of houses nearby. Forty is the speed limit, but so many drivers speed down there.

“I would hate for it to happen again. I don’t think a child would have survived that.

“It just does not bear thinking about.”

Dr Phillip Ambler, one of the medical staff who treated her at the scene, has called for the speed limit on the road to be lowered to 30mph.

He said: “One of our patients was killed the year before, and we renewed the call to lower the speed limit after the second accident.”

He said the treatment Miss Demain received on the scene probably saved her life.

But Miss Demain has not yet fully recovered from the accident.

She said: “My back plays up now and again, and I haven’t got any feeling on my right side from my neck to my chest.

“But the doctors say it will ease in time and get better.”

She said the support from her family and her boyfriend and his family was crucial to her recovery.

She is trying a new career in childcare after she was made redundant from her office job in East Hendred shortly after returning to work.

Thames Valley Police spokesman Holly Winman said the driver of the car was given six points on his licence for driving without care and attention.