Bag snatch heroine Lucy 'raring to go home'

Peter Thomas and Lucy Knight, kitted out with protective headgear, with children Bene and Max.

Good Samaritan bag snatch heroine Lucy Knight is moving home tomorrow with rugby headgear to protect her fractured skull after a month of rehabilitation following an assault.

"She's just raring to go," husband Peter Thomas told the Herald last night. "She misses things. She misses her fitness things and her dance group.

"She wants to get to things really quickly, but the [doctors'] suggestion is she takes her time."

Until her surgery to repair her skull, she has to wear rugby headgear - "like Richie McCaw would wear" - to protect her skull in case she bumps it, Mr Thomas said, but was otherwise on track to get her life back.

"She's physically and mentally doing really well. She's making good progress.

"Her memory is pretty good. She can't remember the incident, which I think is a good thing," he said.

"In some ways she's fully back to normal ... [but] she tires easily. She needs to rest to let her brain fully recover."

Ms Knight, 43, suffered a fractured skull and underwent emergency surgery for a brain bleed after she was hurt as a teenager allegedly trying to steal another woman's bag at Countdown Northcote on September 23.

The mother-of-six intervened, was hit on the back of the head, fell and hit her head, fracturing her skull and suffering a brain bleed.

She requires a final surgery in the coming weeks to replace the piece of skull that was taken out to relieve brain swelling, Mr Thomas said.

Ms Knight has little memory of the 10 days in hospital either but, "since hospital, she has got a lot of memories back", he said.

"We're really lucky. I had lunch with her [yesterday] and she just felt so lucky - it could have been so much worse." A givealittle page set up by friends following the assault on Ms Knight raised $270,000.

Mr Thomas said the family were "overwhelmed" by the support they had received and didn't yet know what to do with the donations.

"Lucy is so grateful and wants to thank everybody. I know that she has some ideas to support some things [with the funds]. And it'll help us and help support her future recovery," he said.

"The good that has come out of this horrible situation is the sort of community feel. It's just tremendous. It's been an amazing outpouring."