Big Brother star left in agony by bagsnatcher

Former Big Brother contestant Nush Nowak feared the injuries she received after being mugged were so severe she might never walk again.

It was several months before she fully recovered and she now has a steel rod that runs through her left thigh bone.

Nush, 24, was attacked at 4am as she headed home after a night with friends at a pub in Islington. The mugger knocked her to the ground when she tried to stop him snatching her handbag.

The assault was so violent that her thigh and kneecap were broken as she fell.

As she writhed in agony, the mugger fled in a car with her bag, containing a purse with ?20 and a mobile phone.

She said: "It had been a great evening. We got a cab back but the taxi over-shot the front door. We got out then someone grabbed my bag. I lost my balance and fell with my full weight on to my knee which shattered."

After the incident in Kentish Town, Nush was taken to the Royal Free Hospital, where she had emergency surgery.

For five months she was almost immobile and had to be looked after by her family in Worcestershire.