Friends of a Keighley teacher who is in a coma following an unprovoked attack in Thailand say he is showing signs of recovery.

Adam Pickles, 40, has overcome pneumonia and a fever and is now breathing unaided, while he recovers from the brutal attack which left him needing emergency brain surgery.

It is now more than three weeks since the former Bingley Grammar School pupil and father-of-one was hit with a metal bar by an attacker – believed to be a Westerner – who drove off, leaving him for dead.

He had only just recovered from a horrific motorbike crash which had also left him in a coma, missing the birth of his son Benjamin, now eight months old.

Yesterday, Mr Pickles’ friend, Neil Clappison, 40, said: “We had a couple of scary moments just before the weekend. He caught pneumonia and had a fever as well.

“But he has overcome both. The first ten days or so were critical – that was the danger zone. He had passed through that before the infections and seems to have fought them off.

“He is now regulating his own body temperature and breathing 60 per cent unaided, so he seems to be getting better. He needs less and less support every day.

“We are hoping that he is going to be out of intensive care in the middle of next week but that is just a guess at the moment.”

Meanwhile, his friends – as well as strangers – have raised £33,000 for his continued care, the majority of which has been given by generous donors who have joined a group on social networking site, Facebook. As of yesterday the group numbered 6,800 members.

Mr Pickles’ insurance company has also agreed to pay about ten per cent of the estimated £70,000 costs of hospital care and repatriation. His hospital care bill alone is £2,000 per day.

Mr Clappison, of Leeds, thanked those who had given to the appeal.

He said: “I would imagine that most of the people donating have never met Adam but people are still getting involved. We are getting an awful lot of donations from strangers.

“We are finding it really overwhelming how generous people are. It really does restore your faith in human kindness when you see first-hand how many people are donating every single day.”

Mr Pickles has lived in Thailand for seven years and is head of English at the Regent’s School in Pattaya. The school is holding a sponsored event called Pattaya to Pickles to raise money for the appeal. There are also fundraising activities planned in the UK.

For further information or to find out how to donate, visit donatetoadam.org.