A HEARTBROKEN mother feared her daughter would be paralysed for life after an horrific sledging accident.

Gabrielle Tattersall could only look on in horror as her 21-year-old daughter Lisa lay motionless in the snow at Holden Vale, Helmshore, with a fractured bone in back.

Gabrielle said: "I was distraught, we didn't know if she would be able to walk again."

Lisa, 21, of Holden Vale House, Haslingden, a former Haslingden High School pupil, had taken her 10-year-old brother Christopher, who attends Haslingden County Primary, and two cousins Edward Sharkey, 13, and Ashley Turner, 13, sledging near Grane Reservoir on Saturday afternoon.

Just minutes after they had left, Gabrielle got a phone call from Ashley on the mobile phone he was given for Christmas to say that there had been an accident and Lisa couldn't move.

Gabrielle said: "My husband Chris and I drove straight over to where she was. Chris had to climb down through the snow drifts to get to her while I called an ambulance.

"Staff from the nearby Holden Vale Hotel were throwing blankets to us so we could cover her up and even little Christopher took off his jacket to cover his sister.

"I didn't know what to do. Christopher had been on the sledge in front of Lisa. They hit a bump and both came off the sledge. Lisa's knee went into Christopher's back -- I thought they were both injured. We were panicking because Lisa couldn't move her legs." When ambulance crews arrived they had to call for Rossendale Search and Rescue Team to get to Lisa. The rescuers at first thought they would need a helicopter to get her away from the remote hillside but they finally managed to carry her by stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

Gabrielle, who runs Holden Mill Caravan Site, said: "She was taken to Bury General Hospital where they found she had fractured a bone in her spine. She was then transferred to Fairfield Hospital, where she will have to lie flat on her back for three weeks.

"When she comes home she will still be lying back for another three weeks after that. She is due to have a scan on Friday and we have been told she will be able to walk again."

Christopher also underwent x-rays but had only suffered bruising.

Distraught Lisa, a student at Bolton University, is due to sit her art and graphic design exams next week.

Her mum said: "I'll have to take all her college books to hospital for her. She was so distraught on New Year's Eve that she couldn't go out to a nightclub in Sheffield with all her friends.

"She had even bought a brand new dress which is still hung up on her wardrobe door but her little brother, Christopher, has said that we will hold a New Year's Eve celebration just for her when she gets out of hospital."

Lisa's accident will also mean that she will have to celebrate her 22nd birthday in hospital on January 12.

The family today thanked the rescuers who helped Lisa and now Gabrielle is trying to get Lisa's favourite pop star Robbie Williams to her daughter's bedside. She said: "I'm absolutely desperate to get Robbie or another celebrity to visit Lisa, it will really cheer her up."