An osteopath from Sussex who spent nearly two months in a Dubai prison after traces of prescription drugs were found in her body said today she thought she might not survive her ordeal.

Tracy Wilkinson, of Balcombe, near Haywards Heath, flew back to Heathrow today after being cleared by a court in the Gulf state on Sunday.

The painkiller codeine and the sedative temazepam - both illegal in the United Arab Emirates - were found in urine tests when she was arrested at Dubai airport for an irregularity on her passport on March 5.

The mother of two faced a possible four years in prison but was cleared after it emerged she may have been given the drugs while in police custody.

Speaking at a Press conference at Heathrow today, Mrs Wilkinson, 44, described her time in jail as "hell".

She said: "At one point they handcuffed me in this tiny cell for about six hours.

"I was handcuffed so I was kind of dangling and could not reach the floor. I thought 'I'm going to die here'. I couldn't breathe."

Mrs Wilkinson nodded as Stephen Jakobi, of campaigning organisation Fair Trials Abroad, said he thought her treatment at the jail had constituted "torture".

Looking tired but happy and dressed all in white, Mrs Wilkinson told reporters that until the British media became involved, the Dubai authorities had not seemed to care about her plight.

She said she had very little understanding of the charges against her and most of the time the procedures had not been explained to her in English.

"They said to me 'You are being very difficult'. I said 'I know. Who wouldn't be difficult?'."

Mrs Wilkinson said even after she was cleared in court she had been afraid that her ordeal may not be over.

She said: "You do think you may never get out.

"I only got my passport two hours before the flight last night. They gave it to me and I went straight to the airport. But until we landed on British soil, I thought they could still stop me."

Mrs Wilkinson, who runs the Balcombe Osteopath and Sports Injury Clinic, is known as the woman with a magic touch and has treated top sportsmen, including members of the Brighton Bears basketball team.

She spent eight weeks in prison before being released on bail on April 30 and said the Dubai authorities had "treated me terribly".

She said she still was not sure when she had been administered the illegal drugs, although she had been given some drugs while in police custody.

"I still haven't seen the report. I don't know what I took and what I didn't take."

The court was provided with evidence about the drugs she was prescribed by her GP in Britain but it now appears that they would have been out of her system before she was tested in Dubai.

Mrs Wilkinson said she had been to Dubai 30 or 40 times in the past ut would not be going back.

She said: "They promised to let me go if I said I'd come back to Dubai but I said no."

Mrs Wilkinson warned travellers to avoid going to countries where there was a chance they could fall foul of "ridiculous" laws.

She said: "It's not worth the risk. People should just not be going to these countries.

"How can you be careful when you don't really know what's happening?

"I missed the simple things, like daylight. You try to think you're not in prison but you know you are."

She added that she had also missed her son and her daughter, Robert, 18, and Kate, 19, whose birthdays she had missed.

Asked what she planned to do now, Mrs Wilkinson replied: "I'm going to see my kids.

"I'm going back to work and I'll try to get back to normality."

Mrs Wilkinson's ex-husband Robin Wilkinson, 50, hugged her as she entered the Press conference.

The retired policeman from Handcross flew out to support her during her ordeal, which included numerous court appearances.

He said: "I believe that had the British Press not been involved, she would not have got bail."