DESPITE losing three fingers in an accident 75 years ago, Sylvia Stanley has gone on to become a keen knitter and cup-winning darts player.

The 79-year-old of Church Lench contacted the Journal this week after seeing a story about her gruesome accident – pictured inset – in our archive pages.

Mrs Stanley lost the digits in 1936 at the age of three, when her elder sister got hold of an axe and accidently cut her fingers off. “We were playing in the garden and my sister who was five picked up the chopper,” says Sylvia. “My dad was chopping sticks and had put the chopper down when he was called away by a neighbour.

“That’s what we figured out as mum and dad didn’t talk about it much. It was just a very unfortunate accident. It is still a taboo subject around my sister.

“It hurts her more than it hurts me and she still gets very upset about it.” Sylvia spent the next five weeks in Pershore Cottage Hospital and remembers the staff throwing her a birthday party.

She said: “I remember having my fourth birthday in hospital.” Now, 75 years down the line, Sylvia is busy knitting for her fourth great grandchild and playing darts with her local team at the Wheelbarrow and Castle pub in Radford, near Inkberrow.

Sylvia, who has five children, 15 grandchildren and four great grandchildren, said: “At the moment I am knitting lots of baby clothes for my great granddaughter.

“I played darts for the Lenches Club for years where we won the four-a-side cup and now I play for the Wheelbarrow and Castle.

“In the summer I am busy in the garden and in the winter it’s my knitting.”