MUM Joanne Selby will have to wait at least three months before she can enjoy her Christmas present after being involved in a sledging accident.

She said: "My partner bought me a bike for Christmas, so it looks like it will be a long time before I try that out.

"I never thought I'd end up in hospital after sledging."

Joanne (38), who lives on Victoria Street, Ramsbottom, broke two bones in her leg when she fell off her sledge on Holcombe Hill.

Joanne crashed on her first run down the hill as her children Joseph (10) and Victoria (12) looked on in horror.

As she lay in agony in the snow, Joseph ran to the nearest farm to raise the alarm while his sister stayed with their mum. Paramedics had to stretcher Joanne over a gate as they could not get it off its hinges to allow an ambulance into the field.

Joanne, a laboratory technician at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said: "It was my idea for me and the children to go sledging, but on my first go this happened.

"The hill was steep and when I set off I knew I was going too fast, but I couldn't stop. Then I flew up into the air off the edge of a little hill and landed on my back. I knew I had hurt myself straight away,

"The children were fantastic though."

Joanne's partner Sean and her children Joseph, a Holcombe Brook CP School pupil, and Victoria, a Woodhey High School pupil, will now have to help care for Joanne over the next three months as she cannot put any weight on her leg.

The following day an 11-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital with back injuries after a sledging accident in Chatterton, Stubbins.

An ambulance was called to the scene but had difficulty reaching the boy, so the Lancashire air ambulance was called.

A spokesman said: "It appears he came down the hill and then fell from the sledge awkwardly."

Witness Gramme Westwell, of Nuttall Lane, Ramsbottom, who was out sledging with his three children, said: "The boy seemed to bump into something and go flying into the air. He landed on his back."

He was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary. His injury is not believed to be serious.