This time last year the family of six-year-old Justin Simons were told their son might always be a vegetable after suffering a crushed skull in a horrific road accident.

However, two weeks ago he brought home three ribbons from his sports day after battling back from partial paralysis with the help of mum Jeanette, father Ernest and dedicated staff of hospitals in the US and Bermuda.

Jeanette remembers the trauma of rushing home from work last May to see Justin lying face down, just feet from their home in South View Road, Somerset, with his arm bent awkwardly under him.

She had been alerted by his father Ernest who was speechless with shock after hearing the crash and rushing to find his son critically wounded with a broken leg and head injuries after being knocked from his bike.

She said: "He called me and I hung up at first because there was just gasping. I thought it was a prank call."

On the way to hospital Justin's lung collapsed, and he suffered a seizure from brain swelling.

For a week, he fought for his life in the intensive care unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Jeanette said: "He was hooked to four machines, he could not speak and there was no movement on his left side. He was totally paralysed.

"When he came to there was no emotion from him. He just looked at you."

Jeanette kept watch over him but Ernest admits the hospital visits in the early days were too much. He said: "I could not stay more than two minutes. But my wife was stronger than me."

A specialist broke the bad news to the family and said Justin has suffered severe brain damage. "They said it was very possible he would be a vegetable."

The first signs of a breakthrough came when he was moved to Gosling ward and Jeanette gave him a piece of paper to write his name and numbers.

Jeanette said: "He gave some signs of being able to understand. I was so excited even though he could not respond.

"He first spoke two weeks after the accident. He said: 'I want to get out of here.' It was nervous reaction, his subconscious talking. When he came to properly he couldn't speak.

"I kept giving him little things to do. I gave him a Gameboy, his favourite toy. His face lit up. He tried to move his left arm, but he was frustrated and could not hold it.

"I would take it away, say that's enough, and then give it back later. I couldn't give him too much. But eventually he mastered it."

"I wasn't told to do this but I took it upon myself. I needed to know what he could do.

"I knew he couldn't speak, or cry or laugh or move his left side."

Despite his semi-paralysis Jeanette said she never fretted over his situation, even when medics said she was taking home a vegetable.

"I just concentrated on getting him back to full recovery."

Three weeks after the accident, Justin was stable enough to be flown to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Largo, Florida.

Immobile in a hip cast and suffering from chicken pox he faced a hard fight to recover.

His father Ernest said: "You could imagine a five-year-old not being able to do anything, being stuck in a bed. But even though he is just a kid, they made him work."

Jeanette said: "As soon as we got there everything kicked in. The nurse, the doctors, the therapists."

Doctors said a weaker child would not have survived the accident.

Ernest said: "Because he was so young and so solidly built, he was okay. He's 70 pounds, he's very solid."

The intense rehabilitation programme had Justin back on his bicycle delivering mail to other patients within two months.

Getting back on a bike was no problem for Justin who remembers nothing of the accident even though it brings back traumatic memories for the rest of the family.

Ernest says: "He got straight on it and rode it as if nothing had happened."

Three months after the accident, Justin was able to return home and was soon pestering mum and dad for a new set of wheels.

"Now we tell him no helmet, no riding... He knows to stay in the garden now."

Justin is able to do 99 percent of the things he did before, according to his mum.

"He still has a little defect in his left leg, and his comprehension skills are not what they should be.

"But he brought home three ribbons from his sports day and I think he can make a full recovery in time. He's almost there."

Now the West End Primary school student tears round on his bike and plays football and cricket with gusto, just as he did before the accident, despite a further set back when he suffered another leg break when a school mate ran into him.

However he is clearly on the mend now. His mum said: "Anyone looking at him would think nothing had happened to him."