The Boat That Rocked: Meet Birmingham women who was a pirate DJ

Apr 19 2009 by Andrew Coleman, Sunday Mercury

‘‘Overnight I lost my looks,’’ she says. ‘‘I had a broken cheekbone, I broke the roof of my mouth, knocked out my front teeth, had a broken jaw, a broken eye socket, glass in my eye, and the top of some of the fingers of my right hand were chopped off.

“When I looked in the mirror at the hospital I was unrecognisable. I thought ‘That’s not my head’.’’

Slowly but surely she recovered and the scars healed. She still sings.

‘‘If a jazz band, like The Heart of England Jazz Band, comes to the local pub they sometimes ask me to sing with them,” she says. “My tone’s gone down a bit – but that suits jazz.

‘‘I still listen to the radio, Radio 2, Smooth and Heart. I have no regrets. If I’d put myself first, rather than my family, where would I be without my looks and no-one to stand by me?’’