Dee Lawes will be our focus. We will look at the Irish mum who broke both feet after jumping through a window in a house fire.

Who is Dee Lawes?

She is a 51 year old woman from Navan, Co Meath.

She is married with kids and grand children.

She was trapped in her first-floor bedroom.

She was forced  to jump through her window which is more than 12feet.

This she did after the blaze blocked any way for her to escape.

Neighbors heard Dee Lawes house alarm which went off after the fire broke.

She was taken to a neighbours house after the fire threatened to spread.

Who was the man driving the car that hit several cars and horse box in Fermoy?

She said she suffered an injury to her foot. This made her felt a shot pain through her body.

Dee said she thought she was going to die.

She described events leading to her jumping out of her window.

“The crackle of the fire woke me. Actually, I believe my guardian angel woke me. Something certainly did as I had taken some sleeping tablets a short while before.

“I went to go downstairs but as soon as I opened the bedroom door the heat drove me back. I thought, ‘I am going to die here’.

“Genuinely my thought was if I don’t get out of here I am dead and my immediate reaction was I have to get out the window.

“The fortunate thing was a few weeks ago that window wouldn’t open but we had a man round to fix it. Only for that I dread to think what would have happened.

“I scrambled out on to the window sill and sat there thinking I had to jump but where did I aim for? At first I thought of jumping on to my car and hoping it would break my fall but I realised I had nothing to grip on to if I landed on the car.

“When this was going through my mind I could hear the glass in the window starting to crack so I knew it was now or never. If I didn’t get down immediately I would be roasted alive.

“I put my toes into the cracks between the bricks and was hanging on by my fingertips but there wasn’t enough grip so I had to jump.

“I made the leap and said to myself, ‘Jesus Mary Mother of God help me.

“I landed on the concrete driveway and felt a sharp shudder go right through my entire body and knew I had done damage but the pain told me I was still alive.

“My first instinct was to get myself further away from the house but I couldn’t move.

“I literally could not move a muscle and as the fall had winded me. I hadn’t the breath to shout for help, so there was nothing I could do only hope somebody found me.”

“I couldn’t help but think yeah I saw the window and took my opportunity.

“I’m not overly religious but I am spiritual and I truly believe there was someone or something in the room that night looking out for me.

“I wasn’t thinking rationally but something made me go for the window.”

Dee Lawes spent two weeks at the hospital.

The brave woman spent two weeks in the Drogheda’s Lourdes Hospital. The doctors told her that her fitness level was a contributing factor to her survival

Dee Lawes spoke about how she has been keeping fit.

She said: “I cycle, go the gym and I hike a lot. As soon as I can I’ll be back on the bike and down the gym, but my hiking days are done.

“I’ve been thinking back on the whole thing and I wasn’t actually scared I hadn’t time to be scared and as soon as I realised I could die I decided that I wasn’t going to.

“I said to myself, Dee at 51 you are too young to die, you have a husband kids and grand-children to live for you are not dying here tonight.”