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MOTORCYCLIST James Challenger who was horrifically injured in a road accident in Bahrain has made a miraculous recovery from his near fatal injuries.
Today, the 29-year-old quantity surveyor, said a heartfelt "thank you" to GulfWeekly readers who helped pay for his flight home to the UK on a stretcher alongside a doctor and nurses.
James, speaking from his family home in the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, said: "I want to tell all my friends in Bahrain that I wish them all the best and I hope to see them again soon. Hopefully I'll make a return visit sometime soon."
Mr Challenger has had to battle his way back to fitness and has finally been discharged from hospital six months after being thrown 35 feet in the air when his motorbike careered out of control on Bahrain's Budaiya Highway.
His injuries were so severe he had to be induced into a coma for three weeks. James suffered swelling to the brain alongside a collapsed lung and damage to his spine, bladder, liver and kidneys.
Surgeons at Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital battled for six hours to save his life and were forced to remove his spleen and rebuild his shattered pelvis and crushed arm.
James, of Lightwood Lane in Norton, had been working in Bahrain for nine months but was not fully insured and his family were unable to raise the BD7,000 needed to fly him home.
His plight was featured on the front page of GulfWeekly and within hours thanks to the efforts of readers, friends and acquaintances enough funds were raised to purchase the 10 plane seats necessary to get James and the medics transferred to the Sheffield Northern General Hospital.
James still has to return to hospital for physiotherapy treatment and is also undergoing out-patient rehabilitation at a brain injury centre.
James' mother, Angela, said: "I want to thank everybody in Bahrain for their help, because without them we wouldn't have been able to get James home.
"He is really pleased to be out of hospital and is so much better. He is walking and talking and using the computer. His speech is a little slurred but he's on the right path. There is a long way to go but he is so determined I am sure he will make a full recovery."
James appreciates there is a lot of hard work and a long way to go to achieve that dream, but his family believes he has got through the worst.
Today they are heading for a much-needed break to the Lanzarote - the most easterly of the seven major Canary Islands which lies in the Atlantic Ocean only some 100 km from the coast of Africa.
"We're all really looking forward to the holiday, and it will be great for James after such a long time in hospital," said Angela.
