A TEENAGER, who was left paralysed after an accident on his BMX bike, has astounded doctors by returning home for the festive season.

Experts had feared that 14-year-old Gavin Wilson would never be able to breathe without the aid of a ventilator after he fell from his bike at a park in June.

Gavin's family was also warned that he could ultimately have no movement in his arms because the injury, near the top of his spinal column, had left him with no feeling below chest level.

But the determined youngster, from Huntington, York, has proved the medical profession wrong on both counts, and is now looking forward to going back to school early next year.

However, he must return to the spinal injuries unit at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, in the new year to continue gymnasium and physiotherapy sessions.

Back at home for Christmas and the New Year, the Burnholme Community College pupil said he was making solid progress.

"I do get frustrated sometimes when I'm lying there and I can't turn my telly over. But you just have to try.

"You've got to adapt as best you can. The quicker you adapt, the better you get, and then it becomes a way of life," he said.

"The doctors didn't think for a second that I would be able to push my wheelchair from one end of the gym to the other, but I did it the other day."

The sports-mad youngster has already managed to go swimming and has spent time watching friends play rugby. He has straps on his lower arms to help him move his electric wheelchair.

Gavin's mother, Annette Marwood, said she and his brother, Jonathan, and sister, Leigh-Ann, were proud of the way he had coped with his injuries