Caring mum Valerie French told today of her relief when a High Court judge ruled that her daughter could expect a £1m pay-out after suffering horrific injuries in a road smash.

Joanne Selley, 33, of Juxon Street, Oxford, suffered brain damage in September, 1992, when she was a passenger in a car which spun out of control on the city's Eastern ring road.

Divorcee Joanne, who has a 15-year-old daughter called Vicki, was in the back seat of an Austin Allegro when it skidded on the A4142 near the Garsington roundabout.

The vehicle careered across the central reservation before striking a crash barrier and somersaulting onto its side.

Joanne's injuries were so serious that she is now legally classified as a patient who is incapable of managing her own affairs. She needs constant care.

After Mr Justice David Steel approved the settlement in the High Court yesterday (TUES), Mrs French, who works as an auxiliary nurse, said: "This is a relief because the money will ensure that Joanne is properly cared for after I am no longer here to look after her. "This is the end of a six-year fight for compensation, but the money will not restore my daughter to how she was before the accident.

"Her head injuries were so appalling that she had tissue taken from her thigh muscle to patch up her brain. For a whole year, I visited her each day in hospital and it was heartbreaking because she did not recognise any of her family.

"Now she can communicate with us again and I am thanking God for small mercies. The progress Jo has made is a tribute to her own guts and strength.

"She is a tremendous character and now her one dream is to go to America. We'll keep taking one day at a time."

Mrs French, who is in her late 50s, and cares for her daughter and granddaughter Vicki in her terraced home in Jericho, sued the insurers of Joanne's friend, Lorraine Green, who was driving at the time of the smash.

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