A YEAR after sustaining a life-threatening head injury after being knocked down by a car, a County Durham schoolgirl is hoping for a peaceful year ahead.

Medics who treated Morgan Embleton, of Bearpark, Durham, said her recovery from the collision was "miraculous", having overcome severe injuries.

On December 18 2012, the Durham Johnston Comprehensive School pupil was struck by a car just minutes from the bus stop where she was heading to catch her lift to school.

Her family had been braced for the worst but, just five days later the 14-year-old was recovering at home.

"No-one thought it was possible," said Morgans mother Rachel Embleton.

"We got a phone call from someone who had found her mobile on scene. They had looked up her dad and called.

"We just assumed she must have broken something, but when my husband ran up there he could just see here lying in athe road. He thought she was dead. She was lying in a pool of blood and because it was raining she was soaking wet.

"He said he was then thinking how to tell me she had died."

But instead, medics, including a doctor and paramedic from the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), were battling to save Morgans life.

The GNAAS doctor anaesthetised her on the roadside before loading her on the aircraft and flying her to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Mrs Embleton paid tribute to the work of GNAAS as well as the road crews and police officers who assisted on scene.

Colin Clark, GNAAS paramedic, said: "It was one of those where it is touch and go whether they are going to survive, so for Morgan to come round as she did is miraculous."