HEARTBROKEN parents have spoken to thank well-wishers for their support following a car crash which has left their daughter in intensive care.

Romaine Lee, 17, is in a serious condition at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford. She was taken there after the crash, in Braintree on June 22, in which her best friend, Charmaine Phillips, also 17, died.

Romaine, last year’s Braintree and Bocking Carnival queen, was a passenger in car which collided head-on with another car on the A131, between the Broad Road and Marks Farm roundabouts.

Another passenger, Danielle Stevens, 19, of Stubbs Lane, Braintree, is in a serious, but stable condition at the hospital.

Speaking at the family home, in Mountbatten Road, Braintree, her stepfather Stuart Cameron, 44, said: “I would like to thank the doctors and nurses for their care of our daughter, especially the nurses who have given a lot of support to my wife.

“I would also like to thank our family and her friends, who have given messages, flowers, cards of strength and support. Each and every one of them holds a special place in our hearts for this.

“Our hearts go out to Charmaine’s family, to Anna Didcock Willis (who looked after Charmaine) and Danielle Stevens.”

With his wife, Karen Lee-Cameron, 44, by his side, Mr Cameron said Romaine had suffered brain damage and broken hers wrists, a rib, her collarbone and her jaw in the accident.

He said she was no longer on the drugs to induced sleep and was breathing for herself, but it was still too early to know how she might recover.

Mr Cameron, a manager for the Royal Mail, said: “We have to take each day as it comes.

“I cannot cope at the moment. I don’t know what the other families are going through. I don’t know about the long run or anything.”

He said the family and many others had been praying for Braintree College student Romaine, something which was giving them all strength.

“At the end of the day, I just want my daughter here, back at home where she belongs with her family,” he said.

Mr Cameron believed she was strong enough to fight on, and hoped she would soon be thanking people personally for the many cards, messages and flowers which had been sent.

He said Romaine, a performing arts student with a part-time job at the Tesco supermarket in Market Place, Braintree, had “absolutely loved” being carnival queen.

He added: “If she knew how much love there was for her it would get her better.”

Her mother, who is deaf, has three other children and works at Farleigh Hospice in Maldon.