A CAR smash victim has been saved from permanent paralysis - because of her passion for line dancing.

Jane Wilson was facing a lifetime in a wheelchair after an accident when her car smashed into a bridge and cart-wheeled off the road.

Her injuries were such that she was only a millimetre away from losing the use of her legs for good. But the strong back muscles she had built up through five years of line dancing saved her from paralysis - and now she is teaching others the secrets of the cowboy-style hobby.

Jane, a 37-year-old from Copmanthorpe, near York, now has two steel plates supporting her damaged spine, but she said yesterday: "That's much better than having to get around in a wheelchair."

She spent five weeks in hospital after the smash in January and underwent specialist surg-ery at St James's Hospital in Leeds. "I went cold when doctors told me I had broken my spine. Things were really bad," she said.

"But the sorrow turned to joy when I was told that as a result of spending 12 hours a week line dancing my muscle tone had saved me from being crippled."

Doctors told her that the muscles were so strong that they had acted as a buffer zone, stopping it moving the extra millimetre which would have left her crippled.

Because of her injuries Jane can no longer drive, but with the help of her husband, John, 40, she has now set up two line dancing classes in York.

John, a farm contracts manager, said: "Jane was determined to use her dancing to bring her life back to normality. It has not only saved her once, but is now the thing that keeps her going."

Jane, who has just passed two line dancing exams, now hopes to expand her classes.