SPEEDWAY devotee Magda Louis is back at the trackside, after a crippling back injury which led to her first taste of NHS care.Polish Magda - whose step son Chris suffered a brain injury and needed hospital treatment in June last year - instead found herself on the wards with a slipped disc.

SPEEDWAY devotee Magda Louis is back at the trackside, after a crippling back injury which led to her first taste of NHS care.

Polish Magda - whose step son Chris suffered a brain injury and needed hospital treatment in June last year - instead found herself on the wards with a slipped disc.

But she enjoyed the care she received, and cannot praise the hospital staff enough.

Magda said: "The NHS is much maligned but I would like to say how wonderful I think Ipswich Hospital is".

"My back had been aching but it seemed nothing serious. One theory is that I hurt it while shovelling snow in Poland in December.

"Then in February the pain became severe and I couldn't walk. Painkillers didn't work.

"There was a very large protrusion which needed surgery. I went to hospital on May 13 and another patient cancelled so I was able to have the operation on May 14.

"I was home on Friday 17, cooking the tea! It was wonderful to be able to do that.

"I'm on top of the world now, and am really thankful."

She thanked staff on Saxmundham Ward, and said: "They were fantastic. They gave me and the other five ladies very very good care on the NHS, and were always there at the press of a button. There were no problems with the food and cleanliness.

"It was my first encounter with the NHS, and I had been worried when all this happened, but I was very lucky."

She moved to England 11 years ago, and said Poland had a 'pay as you go' health system.

She said she had considered paying £100 for an MRI scan in Poland to diagnose the problem, rather than £500 to go private in Ipswich, but said the NHS wait turned out to be an acceptable three weeks.

She said: "I'm walking without crutches and it's fantastic to be back so quickly."