A NORMALLY-active pensioner is facing a long recovery after a dog knocked her off her feet – leaving her hospitalised for three weeks.

Pat Sainsbury, 74, from Southbourne, walks her own dog, Bisto, twice daily at Tuckton, covering five or six miles a day.

She also spends her time dancing and playing table tennis – but now it will be weeks before she can even stand.

To add insult to injury Pat said her home was broken into while she has been recovering and cash taken.

Pat, who has been left with a plate and screws in her knee, said: “I can’t put the foot on the ground for six weeks, so I’m stuck. I got as far as the BMX track at Iford. I met this man with a big Dobermann and it came over to me as all the dogs do as I love them.

“It came over and flipped its body round and knocked me over. It dislocated my knee and broke my leg. I also had injuries to my elbow and shoulder.

“The man went on and another lady came over and phoned 999. They had to put me in a wheelchair and carry me over the bumpy ground, it was rough and painful.”

Pat said the man returned to the scene and she asked for his phone number, but he refused to give it to her.

Pat added: “I’m hoping that when I go back down I will see him. I just turned round and it was a matter of steps and all this happened.

“If it had been anybody older they probably wouldn’t have survived, I wondered whether I would survive.

“I would like to thank the lady who helped me as well.”

Pat spent three weeks in hospital in Bournemouth and Poole. Whilst recovering from her injuries, Pat is now staying with her son, James, in West Moors.

She said: “I’m an outdoors person, not an indoors person. I’m always out – if ever I get down I get my bus ticket and take off somewhere.”