A RETIRED doctor from Oxford has met up with the paramedics who saved her life to say thank you.

Dr Anne Watson, a former GP who lives in Hurst Rise Road, Cumnor Hill, broke her thigh and badly damaged her knee after slipping in a remote area of the Brecon Beacons in Wales in November last year.

She dialled 999 on her mobile and was rescued by the Welsh Ambulance Service, who took her to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny before she was transferred to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital for a nine-hour operation on her thigh.

The crews battled torrential downpours and extreme winter weather conditions to reach her.

Now – 12 months on – she has returned to Wales to meet the crews who treated her.

Dr Watson, 70, who worked at Kidlington Health Centre for 20 years and spent about 10 years working part-time at the Luther Street Medical Centre in Oxford, said: “The ambulance car had trouble getting to me because of the roads but when they did they were marvellous.

“I think without them I would have died because my husband would have tried to get me into our car.”

She said a second ambulance and a helicopter were called, although eventually she was transferred by land. She added: “The ambulance crew were wonderful and I really felt for them.

“It was so cold I could hear their teeth chattering and their hands were shaking as they treated me.

“I got hypothermia but they did the best they could to keep me warm, trying to cover me in that silver paper even though I was lying on this track in the pouring rain with water gushing past me.

“They’re a wonderful gang and they really did save my life.”

Dr Watson and her husband, Christopher, have been spending their holidays at a 300-year-old cottage near Llangenny for the past 40 years.

Paramedic Jon Cole, 32, said: “It was wonderful to see her again.

”It was a rotten day when she got hurt but she was quite feisty and her spirits were good.

“She was an excellent patient, very brave.

“It’s a tribute to her that she’s making a good recovery, and although it was difficult for us it was much worse for her.”

Since her accident and operation, Dr Watson has been diagnosed with cancer, although she is recovering well from the condition.

Ambulance technician Gareth Morris, 35, said: “She’s a marvellous lady and it was good to see her in such good form and back in Wales.”

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk