A Taiwanese television presenter who lost two of her best friends in the Potters Bar train crash and was herself left brain damaged returned to the scene of the tragedy for the first time this week.

Tanya Liu, 34, spent three months in a coma after the crash in May 2002 and her family was told she would be left in a permanently vegetative state because her skull had been broken.

In the year following the crash, she had six operations, two for brain surgery, and she has spent this week receiving specialist treatment in Cambridgeshire.

Before her treatment, she decided to return to the scene of the accident, which killed seven and injured 76.

"I had flowers I wanted to lay for the people who died there, in just a small ceremony. I said some words, because it was such a horrible thing," said Tanya, who uffers from memory loss.

"I feel okay now, but I started off in hospital in Beijing for 11 months after being in a coma in England. But I still have to go to hospital to see different doctors. I live in Beijing but when I recover totally, I will go back to Hong Kong, where I used to live and work."

The friends she lost were Chia Hsin Lin, 30, a student at the University of London, and Chia Chin Wu, 31, a fellow television journalist.

Tanya's sister, Emily Meng, said: "She lost a lot of things, like a boyfriend, her two good friends, her regular life and job. She was just a tourist here, it's such bad luck her whole world has changed"

Tanya plans to sue for compensation once the full extent of her injuries has been assessed.