Braintree: Parents of critical crash girl thank well-wishers (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Braintree: Parents of critical crash girl thank well-wishers

4:17pm Thursday 2nd July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Heartbroken parents have thanked well-wishers for their support following the crash which has left their daughter in intensive care.

Romaine Lee, 17, remains in the intensive care unit at Chelmsford’s Broomfield Hospital following the crash in Braintree on June 22 in which her best friend Charmaine Phillips, 17, died.

Miss Lee - last year’s Braintree and Bocking Carnival queen - was a passenger in the head-on collision on the A131 between the Broad Road and Marks Farm roundabouts.

Another passenger, Danielle Stevens, 19, of Stubbs Lane, Braintree, was in a serious, but stable condition at hospital.

Speaking at the family home in Mountbatten Road, Braintree, Stuart Cameron, 44, who Miss Lee regarded as her father, said: “I would like to thank the doctors and nurses for their care of our daughter, especially the nurses who have given a lot of support to my wife.

“I would like to thank also our family plus her friends who have given messages, flowers, cards of strength and support and each and every one of them hold a special place in our hearts now for this.

“Our hearts go out to Charmaine’s family, Anna Didcock Willis [who looked after Charmaine] and Danielle.”

Mr Cameron, Miss Lee’s stepfather, told The Braintree and Witham Times, with his wife Karen Lee-Cameron, 44, by his side, that Miss Lee had damaged her brain and had broken her wrists, rib, colar bone and jaw.

He said she was no longer on the drugs which induced her into sleep and was breathing for herself, but it was still early days at the moment.

Mr Cameron, who is a manager at Royal Mail, said: “We have to take each day as it comes.

“I cannot cope at the moment. I don’t know what the other families are going through. I don’t know in the long-run or anything.”

He said the family had been praying for Braintree College student Miss Lee, and others were also praying, which was giving them all strength.

“At the end of the day I just want my daughter here, back at home where she belongs with her family,” he said.

Mr Cameron believed she was strong enough to fight on, and hoped she would be thanking people themselves for all the cards, messages and flowers.

He said Miss Lee, who works at Tesco in Braintree’s Market Place, had “absolutely loved” being carnival queen.

“If she knew how much love there was for her that will get her better,” he said.

He added how the student, who is studying performing arts at college, also “loved” her dancing.

Mrs Lee-Cameron, who is deaf, is a mother-of-four who works at Farleigh Hospice in Maldon.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)