A YORK teenager left paralysed when he fell from his mountain bike has returned home from hospital for Christmas.

Gavin Wilson, 14, from Strensall Road, Huntington, astounded doctors with his progress after the accident at St Nicholas Fields in Tang Hall, York, in June.

At one point it was thought that the Burnholme Community College pupil would never again breathe without the aid of a ventilator.

Then it was feared that he would have no movement at all in his arms, because the injury near the top of his spinal column, called a C45 level injury, left him with no feeling below chest level.

But the determined teenager 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 for a few weeks, to continue his exhausting gym and physiotherapy sessions.

Gavin has been fully supported by his family and friends over the past six months and wants to thank everyone who raised money for him. Despite everything he has endured, he has not lost his sense of humour.

He said: "I do get frustrated sometimes when I'm lying there and I can't turn my telly over - especially when Kilroy is on.

"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.

"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.

"You never know, in five years' time, we might have a cure and if you stay healthy now you would be a perfect candidate."

Sports-mad Gavin has recently been enjoying weekend home visits, watching his friends and family play rugby whenever he can and going shopping.

The teenager uses special straps on his lower arms, which have no strength or movement, to help him move his electric wheelchair, and to write his own Christmas cards. He also managed to go swimming for the first time since the accident happened.

His mother, Annette Marwood, said the whole family, including her husband Phil, Gavin's brother, Jonathan, four, and sister Liegh-Ann, 12, was extremely proud of the way Gavin had coped with his injuries.

Updated: 10:20 Monday, December 24, 2001