Woman who lost her husband and youngest daughter in a freak speed boating accident has spoken about her loss for the first time

She says the experience will not define her or her children in an interview

A woman who lost her husband and youngest daughter in a speedboat accident has spoken out for the first time.

Victoria Milligan was celebrating the May Bank Holiday weekend in May 2013 with her husband Nick and their four children Amber, Olivia, Emily and Kit in Cornwall when they were throw a speedboat when it sped out of control.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Victoria describes steering the boat after Nick removed the “kill cord”, which immediately stops the engine when pulled, to go to the bathroom. When he came back he took the controls and turned right sharply despite Victoria’s protests.

“He said to the kids, 'Shall we go round one more time?' And he said, 'Turn right, turn right.'” she explained “But we weren't going very fast and I didn't think there was enough room to turn. He then grabbed the wheel with his right hand and accelerated with his left. It was like doing a wheelie.

“It skidded, was trying to right itself. When it rights itself it bashes down and we fly out. Of course, I just look at it and go, 'F***, the kill cord,' and it starts to turn.”

She remembers trying to get her son Kit, then aged five, to safety when she said they were struck by the speedboat coming around again.

Victoria lost her left leg in the accident and Kit needed 12 operations to save his.

She heard her eldest daughter Amber, then 12, screaming ‘Daddy’s dead. Daddy’s dead’ but it was only after coming to in the hospital after she had lost her leg that she learnt her daughter Emily, 8, had also died.

Recalling the moment a policeman told her the news, she said: “It didn't sink in. That took a year really, although I remember being wheeled in and saying to my surgeon, 'Please, please can you save my leg? I've lost my husband, I've lost my daughter. I need to be strong for my other children.' The surgeon was almost crying.”

Two years on from the tragedy she says she has “started to live rather than just exist” in the past few months and is now training for a 10km run wearing her prosthetic leg for Child Bereavement UK.

She said she is selling their six-bedroom home in Wandsworth, south-west London to release some money to provide for her remaining children.

Victoria is now looking towards her future: “This is not going to define me. It's not going to define my children. We've still got so much future ahead of us.”