A student who broke her back two years ago has set up a website selling funky-coloured comfortable crutches.

Amelia Braddell, 21, of Hackers Lane, Churchill, near Chipping Norton, fell down a ravine into a river after being thrown from a quad bike in Scotland while at Edinburgh University.

Her injuries have left her reliant on crutches, and together with her mother, Clare, she has set up Cool Crutches to offer a colourful and comfortable alternative to cheap NHS equipment.

She said: "With NHS crutches you get massive blisters on your hands and it's painful to go anywhere on them. They also break very easily and click as you walk, which means people always know you're coming.

"Our crutches come in a range of colours for all occasions and are completely silent - which is very important if you use them all the time.

"They are also lightweight and strong, and the handles are soft and individually moulded to your left and right hands.

"Instead of making you look disabled, they seem to be a talking point when people meet you. I'm so much happier using them."

Miss Braddell, who is in her third year of university studying history after taking a year off to recover, knows she is very lucky to be alive after breaking her back.

Following her accident, she spent two months at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, where she underwent major spinal surgery, before being transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, for a second operation.

Doctors said she could have been paralysed and wheelchair-bound.

Mrs Braddell added: "Most improvement is made in the first two years, so we know Amelia isn't going to get much better, but she's still here.

"She was so down while she was recovering, and kept complaining about her crutches.

"I went online to find something better, but couldn't find anything, so decided to do it myself."

Cool crutches - which have been commended by the British Orthopaedic Society - are aluminium, weigh just over 1lb and cost £98.

They come in blue, gold, black, light pink, dark pink, camouflage and spotty.

The website also offers a recycling service for people who no longer need their crutches, which are given to Mercy Ships, a charity that gives them to amputees in Africa.

Mrs Braddell said: "NHS crutches cost about £36 and no-one ever asks for them back, so we provide a bag which people can put them in to send them free to a warehouse in Hertfordshire."