A sleepwalking teenager escaped unscathed after falling 25ft from her bedroom window.

Rachel Ward, 18, woke to find herself lying on the ground outside her parents home.

They woke seconds later as she screamed for them to help her.

Sue and Mike Ward rushed outside and saw their daughter lying on the grass below her second-storey window, just inches from her parked car.

Fearing the worst, they checked her over and didn't move her in case she had damaged her spine.

After a couple of minutes they realised that she appeared uninjured and, amazingly, was able to stand.

The impact of the fall left six-inch divots in the grass from Rachel's heels but not a mark on her apart from her muddy feet..

Her parents, of Holmbush House, near Faygate, Horsham, initially took Rachel back to her bedroom where she fell asleep but then decided to take her to the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

There, doctors assessed her and sent her on to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The doctors were amazed to find that, despite falling so far, the teenager was completely unharmed and after spending the night in hospital as a precaution, they let her return home.

Rachel is currently studying A-levels in dance, drama and art at Collyer's College in Horsham.

She has previously studied at the Italia Conti Academy performing arts school in London.

One theory is that Rachel's strong legs from her dancing exploits helped to protect her in the fall.

She told a national newspaper: “I'm completely fine apart from a minor backache.

“For my dance training I did five hours of technique every day so perhaps my strong legs and ankles helped protect me.”

Her mother, a 48-year-old senior flight attendant, said the accident, which happened at about 11.15pm on May 11, could have been caused by her daughter's A-level exam stress as she had sat an exam earlier that day.

She said: “I've got a friend who is a GP and she said that when she was younger and had exams she used to sleepwalk a lot.

“It was amazing, Rachel was very lucky. You would expect her to have broken a bone or worse but she is fine.

“All she had was a few aches in the days after it happened but she took some tablets and that was it.”

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