BURNS victim Bernard Earnshaw is back in Britain and on the road to recovery.

The 55-year-old from Norton, who was stranded in Portugal with horrific burns after attempting to squirt lighter fuel on to a barbecue, was flown home this week and is currently resting at Wakefield's Pinderfields Hospital.

Without proper travel insurance his family's only option to get him home was to raise the cash for a special medical flight.

Until he flew home this week Mr Earnshaw had been stranded in Hospital in Lisbon for six weeks with 45 per cent burns.

The family carried out a sponsored walk around Malton and Norton while kind-hearted Evening Press readers donated cash.

"He is so relieved to be back in this country," said his daughter Clare Weatherill.

"He knows that people have helped him and he is very grateful to them.

"None of the nurses spoke English at the hospital so he was going mad - he was very delirious and this just made things worse.

"We were worried he might have slipped into depression had he not come home."

On Wednesday he was flown to Heathrow on a special medical flight and taken to a hospital near the airport.

Doctors there assessed him and decided he was fit enough to be taken to Pinderfields Hospital, in Wakefield.

Clare said her dad is currently undergoing physiotherapy treatment and he could be out of hospital in a month.

"He has stiffened up because he's been lying in his bed in Portugal for about five weeks," she added.

"He is also a little bit underweight so the doctors want to build him up again.

"He is completely covered in bandages from his neck down and the doctors say he will be receiving home visits for a while when he leaves the hospital.

"He is really making an amazing recovery considering the extent of the burns."

Updated: 11:27 Friday, August 10, 2001