A woman who until recently held the world record for her eight metre-plus fingernails has spoken of the car crash that robbed her of the impressive talons and her “identity”.

Lee Redmond, of Salt Lake City, Utah, had grown her nails for 30 years when the accident happened in February this year.

Speaking publicly for the first time since then, Ms Redmond said it was “the most dramatic” event in her life, but added: “There’s more to life than nails”.

The 68-year-old great-grandmother had nurtured her nails to a combined length of 8.65 metres (28ft 4in). She currently has 11.5cm (4.5in) of nails and said she has no intention of growing them back to their former glory.

To coincide with the launch of the 2010 edition of Guinness World Records, she spoke of her life since the crash.

She said: “Losing my fingernails has been the most dramatic thing that’s happened in my life. I think it was my grandson that said, ‘Grandma, they are like your baby; you’ve taken care of them for 30 years and lost them in a second’. But then when you think about it, you know our whole life could end in a second, not just part of the body, but your whole life.”

To coincide with the interview, Guinness World Records is including a picture of Ms Redmond taken just three months before the crash in its latest edition.