A MOTHER is desperately willing her son to fight for his life after he suffered critical head injuries while walking home from a Dales pub.

George Handley was found unconscious on the road between Askrigg and Newbiggin in Wensleydale in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The 22-year-old had been drinking at the White Rose pub in Askrigg and was walking back to his home in Newbiggin when passing motorists found him lying in the road at Howgate hill.

The Northern Echo:

His mother Louise Porter said there were initial thoughts that George may have been hit by a car, but the family have since been told by police that an investigation of the scene uncovered no evidence of a collision or an attack.

And apart from minor grazes, the only injury George received was the major head trauma which resulted in a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.

He is now in an induced coma at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and Ms Porter said doctors have told her that although he is stable, they are taking things a day at a time.

Ms Porter publicised the incident on Facebook and asked people to "Please PRAY for George".

Speaking on Tuesday, she said: “I was called to the scene because the people who found him recognised him.

“The first responder got there within minutes and he was amazing - everybody has been.

“He had this machine and all George’s stats were good.

“It did take the ambulance over an hour to get to him, which obviously we were concerned about, but it had to come from Grassington for some reason.

“When they arrived they did what they had to do, but until he got to James Cook we didn’t realise how serious it was.

“I think we were expecting him to wake up out of his drunken stupor.”

Ms Porter runs The Crown Inn at Askrigg and George also works in the pub, meaning he is well-known in the village.

Ms Porter said that the regulars are being “amazing”, offering to help out in the pub where they can.

“We have got amazing support,” she said.

“We are trying to keep the business going because we don’t know what is round the corner.

“Everybody is ringing up and offering help of any sort.”

Ms Porter said it was not unusual for George – who over is 6ft tall - to walk home alone after a night out but it is hard to come to terms with a drunken fall causing such devastation.

She said: “We have a pub, but to think this all happened through drink.

“When I was sat drinking my tea the other night, somebody asked me ‘do you want something stronger’? I said ‘no, it can all go in the bin’ – he (George) certainly won’t be drinking again.”

Ms Porter, who praised the medical staff at James Cook, has been told her son has ‘a long, long way ahead’ even if he does come round.

The family is sadly no stranger to heartbreak as Ms Porter lost her daughter Rebecca to cancer when she was just 20-years-old.

She died six years ago next week and left behind a daughter Micheala, six.