THE father of a teenager who was left fighting for his life following a car smash has said his son is steadily making a recovery.

Stephen Maylor's son Thomas, 17, was a front-seat passenger in a car that veered off Haslingden Old Road in Oswaldtwistle on 4 June.

Thomas, of Whitecroft View, Baxenden, was on a life support machine at Preston Royal Infirmary and suffered severe swelling of the brain.

But defying doctors' bleak prognosis for his survival, this week he enjoyed a home visit and hopes to be able to spend Christmas with his family.

On the night of the accident Thomas was travelling with three friends towards Blackburn when the car failed to negotiate a left-hand bend, rolled onto its side and ploughed 50 metres into a field.

Mr Maylor said: "I'll never forget when it happened. I was at home but my wife was on holiday in Tenerife.

"They rang me at about 4 o'clock in the morning. They said he'd been in an accident but wouldn't tell me how serious it was.

"The police called round and said that I had to get to the hospital because it was not looking good.

"When my wife found out she was in a complete state.

"He was taken to Blackburn then they transferred him to Preston Royal Infirmary. It was about three days later they decided to do the craniotomy because the swelling on his brain wouldn't go down.

"We were told the prognosis wasn't good even if he survived the operation."

But despite the odds Thomas continues to improve day-by-day.

Mr Maylor said: "He's a bit better than what he was but he's still bedridden. His memory's a little sharper. He's had his operations done, he had the bones replaced in his skull.

"They have done some surgery on his arm and put plates in because of the damage."

The family hope that within the next few weeks Thomas will get a place at the Rakehead Centre, a rehabilitation unit in Burnley.

Mr Maylor, who had a hip replacement two weeks before the accident said: "It's good he's going in because he needs the rehabilitation. At Preston the people are fantastic but he doesn't get enough physiotherapy.

"Part of his rehabilitation will be to come home at weekends. It's very demanding when he comes home because he needs pretty much 100 per cent care.

"The burning question is how he'll recover . The people at the hospital, the neurosurgeons, don't know so if they don't, nobody knows. But they all say he's remarkable to get where he is now.

"He takes everything in, all the information, but can only have conversations to a degree. His short-term memory is almost non-existent.

"He gets very frustrated as he says in hospital that he's bored and wants to come home."

Mr Maylor, Thomas' mother Marie, and sisters Emily, 16, and Ruby, nine, visit him every day in hospital.

Mr Maylor said: "There's always somebody there with him.

"We have been fine. The girls have coped very well with it. My wife is just like any other mother and gets upset now and again but copes with everything we have to put up with."