Tears of joy as boy flies home today

Graham Shillabeer, knocked off his bike by a car near Dijon, will be flown with an expert medical team to Leeds-Bradford Airport then transferred by ambulance to Leeds Infirmary.

Today Graham's mother, Georgina Puttock, who has been trying desperately to raise the £5,000 needed to fly him home, said she had shed tears of joy when doctors told her the news.

"It's so sudden but I'm just so relieved that he's coming home at last," said Miss Puttock.

"The doctor at the hospital in Dijon phoned me up and said could I be at the airport today to meet Graham when he was flown in.

"I just started crying. I couldn't believe it was happening.

"I haven't seen my son for nearly two months and I'm just looking forward to throwing my arms around him and giving him a big hug.

"It's worrying not knowing what condition he will be in but I feel the worst is over now."

The accident happened when Graham was travelling with his long-distance lorry driver father who is divorced from his mother.

His family were told it would cost at least £5,000 to fly Graham, of Lymington Drive, Holme Wood, back to a bed in the paediatric intensive care unit at Leeds.

He has been communicating after coming round from a semi-coma but doctors fear he may have suffered brain damage.

Miss Puttock said: "We have been organising things to raise as much as we can but it's so difficult. My main concern at the minute is to get my son home.

"I've spoken to him on the phone but it was very difficult as he's got a broken jaw."

A spokesman for the Dijon hospital said the cost of the journey was being met by the car driver's insurance company.

Bradford West MP Marsha Singh and Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe pledged to join forces to recruit help from Tony Blair to help bring Graham home.

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