A woman who suffered life-changing injuries after being attacked by a cow during a walking holiday has recalled the moment she was thrown around "like a rag doll".

Stella Collins, from Tonbridge, was on a five-day trip to the Yorkshire Dales with her husband Geoff when she was charged and repeatedly trampled by the animal.

“I was a little ahead of my husband who had stopped to take a photo,” Stella explained.

“We were about 35 metres away from this herd of cows when, without warning, this large ginger and white cow charged.

“It just came thundering towards me and I heard my husband say ‘oh no’ and I thought I was going to die because of the anguish in his voice.

“I had no time to do anything other than turn my shoulder as the cow’s head hit me and I was thrown into the air.

"I was like a rag doll being tossed around and repeatedly trampled."

She added: “We were so happy to be in such a beautiful place.

"It was like being in a part of heaven but then, in a blink of an eye, heaven turned into hell.”

Stella was airlifted to hospital where she spent five days recovering.

She suffered multiple injuries in the attack, including broken ribs, a blood clot and lesions to her lungs, leg and ankle injuries, whiplash and major soft tissue damage.

Fourteen months later, Stella is still undergoing weekly rehabilitation and physiotherapy and is in constant pain.

'It was like being in a part of heaven but then, in a blink of an eye, heaven turned into hell...'

Last year in the UK, five people were killed in cow tramplings and dozens more seriously injured.

The super active 60-year-old regularly played tennis, badminton and stoolball before the incident.

Since the attack Stella has tried to return to sports, but after aggravating her soft tissue injuries, has been advised against activity until after further diagnostic tests.

“It is really hard,” she said. “I still have all this pain doing just everyday activities and am just not the person I was.

"I have lost my confidence and still suffer flashbacks of the cow being over me, snorting as it trampled me again and again.

“But, I know how lucky I was and I am just so grateful for the actions of the emergency services and what they did for me, particularly the air ambulance.

"I can’t imagine what the journey to hospital would have been like if I had to go by road from such a remote spot.”

Stella's story features on this Tuesday’s episode of Helicopter ER at 9pm on Really.

The programme follows the life-saving work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance.