A mother from York was left with severe spinal injuries after falling 200 feet on a country walk with her family.

Betty Routledge, of Upper Poppleton, is in Royal Preston Hospital and is due to be transferred to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield on Monday.

She was walking with her husband Ian, 13-year-old son Peter and his friend Joe Hawkwood, of Moor Monkton, on Easter Monday when the accident happened.

They were visiting the Pennine town of Todmorden, on the West Yorkshire/Lancashire border, where Joe used to live.

Speaking from the hospital today, her husband, Ian, said: "We were walking down this path and it was quite steep straight in front of us and we were being very careful.

"Perhaps we didn't take enough notice of what was on the right.

"She slipped onto her bottom and looked at me as though to laugh, then it turned to horror - she rolled right down the slope which was about 80 degrees and covered in trees and bushes."

Mrs Routledge came to rest near the bottom of the 200-foot slope when a tree stopped her fall.

Peter and his friend ran for help from a hotel below and emergency services had to hack a pathway through trees and undergrowth to rescue her.

Mr Routledge said his wife, who is a keen walker, had just joined a local walking group run by All Saints' Church, Poppleton.Her condition was today described as stable.

Mr Routledge, who runs a freelance traffic control systems business with his wife, has been at her side at hospital since the accident.

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