THE mother-of-four left for dead in a horrific hit-and-run accident today praised family, friends, colleagues and the police for their help in her slow recovery.

Susan Ready said it was their unstinting support that had pulled her through.

The 45-year-old suffered multiple injuries after she was thrown off her bicycle and carried 250 metres on the bonnet of drunken Cain Fleet's car in Lee-on-the-Solent eight months ago.

Since then Mrs Ready of Tukes Avenue, Bridgemary, Gosport, has spent months in hospital and undergone numerous skin and bone grafts.

Doctors still do not know whether she will ever regain the full use of her right leg or right arm.

"I want to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their unstinting support," she said.

"I also want to praise the police for their care, effort, diligence and the resources they have put into this matter."

Mrs Ready was cycling home along Broom Way from Glen Heathers nursing home where she worked as a care assistant when the accident happened on February 28.

She has been back to the nursing home twice to see colleagues and residents and on both occasions said there were a lot of tears.

Now back at home with husband Colin, 46, the couple say it is time to move on after Judge David Selwood sentenced Fleet to three years and three months in prison last week.

Fleet, 27, of Gordon Road, Gosport, had consumed four pints of larger and cannabis before the accident.

He gave police a false alibi after hatching a plan with friends Majella Sumpter, 30, and Simon Willett, 31, denying responsibility.

Fleet pretended he had been at the couple's flat in Halyard Crescent, Gosport, on the night of the accident and reported his car stolen the next day. He went on to make a bogus insurance claim.

The trio kept up what Judge Selwood described as their "wicked conspiracy" for two months until forensic evidence and mobile phone records came to light.

Sumpter and Willett admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Sumpter received a 100-hour community punishment order and Willett a nine-month prison sentence.

While the Ready family believe Fleet's apology to be "false" and "hollow" they voiced sorrow for his mother having to live with what her son had done.

Susan's husband Colin, 46, a factory worker, said: "You think you can protect your family but when they go out the front door anything can happen.

"There have been a lot of tears but the whole family has been very supportive.

"Old fashioned values of what families are about have kept us together.''