EQUESTRIAN Louise Neale who nearly lost her life when she was kicked in the head by a horse, is organising a collection for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

Miss Neale, 24, suffered horrific injuries two years ago when a horse she was leading bolted down the road.

Now she wants to thank the air ambulance for their life-saving rescue.

Miss Neale, 24, of South Place, Corsham, was working at a small equestrian yard at Kington St Michael when the accident happened.

"I was leading a horse along the lane when another horse spooked her," she said.

"My horse bolted and dragged me along the road and the horse's hind foot kicked me."

She remembered waking in a pool of blood, afraid she was going to die.

Miss Neale was airlifted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Later she was transferred to Bristol's Frenchay Hospital where she had an operation to remove the fractured pieces of her skull, and to insert two metal plates.

Her right side was paralysed for several weeks, and Miss Neale has still not recovered sensation in two fingers.

"I remember most of the rescue," she said. "I was frightened lying in the road in a pool of blood. I could not move or feel anything."

Miss Neale returned to work at the yard, but she left before Christmas to start work at Newshop in Corsham, and she intends to go back to college.

Now she is planning a special collection for Wiltshire Air Ambulance in Bath and Chippenham on July 13.

Miss Neale, her friends and family will be dressing up as doctors and nurses to rattle tins in Bath during the day, and in the pubs of Chippenham during the evening.

"They saved my life and I want to thank them," she said.