A WOMAN soldier who was seriously injured while serving in Iraq was last night overwhelmed by her welcome home.

Jane McLaughlan, a corporal with the Military Police, suffered severe head injuries, a punctured lung, broken leg, ribs and pelvis, and damaged her liver in a road accident outside Ramala a month ago.

The 32-year-old, from Hartlepool, was thrown from the Land Rover she was driving at the head of a convoy after it was hit by a US Army vehicle and overturned.

After a stay in a US hospital in Kuwait, she was flown to Britain by the RAF, before being transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, where she was under sedation.

Corp McLaughlan cannot remember anything about the accident, and the first she knew about it was when she asked why she was in hospital.

"I was really shocked when my family had told me what had happened.

"They had kept the newspaper cuttings and it is weird reading what happened. It is like it was someone else," she said.

Although Corp McLaughlan, who returned to her Hartlepool home on Monday evening, is beginning to heal cosmetically, her injuries are still painful and she faces a lengthy period of rehabilitation.

She said: " I am starting to get my appetite back. Apparently I was only fed through a tube and I am really looking forward to home-cooked meals.

"I will be back on my feet soon and able to build my strength up. It is starting to get easier each day.

"I got quite a shock when my mum took me to do some shopping as people who I didn't know came up to me and asked how I was.

"I would like to say thank you to everyone who has passed on messages of support as it has been so overwhelming and has helped to lift me."

Corp McLaughlan, who along with her husband Rob, also in the Military Police, serves in Osnabruck, Germany.

Her mother, Pat Maddison, said: "It is nice to have Jane home and the messages we have received from people, even strangers, have been lovely."

An investigation into the crash is being carried out by British and US armed forces.