A woman who ripped her wedding finger off just weeks before her big day is able to wear her ring again after medics re-attached her severed digit.

Natalie Diamond, 44, was retrieving her wedding dress from the loft before a fitting on June 5, 2021, when disaster struck.

The mum-of-three plummeted 9ft after the ladder propped against the open hatch swung backwards.

As she fell, Natalie's diamond engagement ring caught onto the top of the ladder - leaving her hanging from just her ring finger.

Her weight eventually caused the finger to ''rip clean off'' just six weeks before she was due to wed her fiancé, Bob, 44, a painter and decorator.

She was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital where a team of specialist surgeons were miraculously able to reattach the mangled digit.

Bucks Free Press:

Natalie, a carer, from Downley, High Wycombe, said: "It all happened so fast, but it also felt like it happened in slow motion.

"I thought I'd just bashed it, but then I looked over and saw my finger lying on the floor.

''I was more worried about my wedding being ruined, I couldn't believe this had happened so close to my big day.''

During the 20-minute wait for an ambulance, Natalie asked Caroline to retrieve her finger and wrap it in ice - which she ''reluctantly'' agreed to.

They were later informed by paramedics not to put the finger directly on ice, and her fiancé Bob was forced to remove to wrap in cling film.

Natalie has since praised Dr James Chan, and his specialist plastic surgery team at Stoke Mandeville Hospital - who spent six hours painstakingly reattaching her finger.

Plastic reconstructive hand surgeon Dr Chan said: "‘This was an absolutely devastating injury for Natalie.

"Not only physically but psychologically.

"The ring finger is such an important symbol.

"To reattach the finger, we fixed the bone, re-attached the tendons so that it can move again, and joined up the nerves to give it feeling.

''This was a total team effort from our theatre team to the doctors and nurses on the ward and the hand therapists.

''To be able to help make a difference like this is truly one of life’s greatest privileges."

Miraculously, Natalie was still able to get married on July 15, 2021, at Fredrick's Hotel Spa, Maidenhead, in front of just 30 guests due to covid restrictions.

Although her finger was too swollen to fit the engagement ring and marriage band on the big day, Natalie has since had them re-sized and is able to wear them on her reattached finger.

Natalie said: "To lose my ring finger before my wedding was so symbolic, and when I was finally able to get married it was really emotional because everyone knew what I'd been through.

"I was so worried that it would look ugly on my wedding day, but it was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared."