Balcony plunge newlywed flown home

A woman who fractured her spine in three places while on honeymoon in Corfu arrived back in Britain today.

Carrie Dudbridge, 27, fell up to 30ft from a hotel balcony on the Greek island last Sunday.

Her husband Michael, 29, from Lewisham, south-east London, received donations from various sources to raise the £16,000 needed to fly his wife home as they did not have travel insurance.

The couple, who got married on July 31, thought a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) would cover their expenses if they had an accident, but it does not cover the cost of air ambulance repatriation.

Mrs Dudbridge, a primary school secretary in Lewisham, fell from the balcony of the couple's first-floor hotel room.

Mediaviation, which provides private air ambulance medical flight services, was flying from Oxford Airport today to Corfu, returning Mrs Dudbridge to Biggin Hill airport in Kent.

A spokesman for Biggin Hill said: "She arrived safely at 4.30pm and has been taken by land ambulance to a hospital, I don't know which one."

Mediaviation had no immediate comment tonight.