TEN months after she was left fighting for life following a serious car accident, Hunger Hill schoolgirl Lucy Harris has returned to full health.

The eight-year-old was knocked down with her friend Charlotte Amadi, aged 10, on the morning of September 10 in Wigan Road in Hunger Hill.

She was rushed to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with a life-threatening head injury and put in a medically induced coma.

Following nearly a month of treatment in hospital and several more months recovering at home, her parents Dave and Sharon now say they have their 'cheeky' little girl back.

Dave, aged 53, said: "I can’t tell you how great it felt to bring our daughter home, to feel like you are returning to normal life.

"She is nearly back to her full self. We are getting there, it has been a long road.

"Lucy was in the coma for five days and it was another five days before she even started to talk. It was a very hard time and I don't wish what we went through on anyone.

"It took me a long time to feel safe to let her go outside but she is absolutely fine in herself again and we have trouble trying to keep her still, she is her cheeky self."

Lucy, a pupil at St Mary's C E Primary School, was walking to the shops with friends when she was hit by the car.

Dave and Sharon, aged 42, rushed to her side as she was being treated by paramedics but was unresponsive to their voices.

While her friend Charlotte was discharged after four days, Lucy was treated in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit for bruising on the brain.

She also suffered a lacerated kidney and a broken leg which was put in a full cast for six weeks.

After coming out of the coma she was moved to the High Dependency Unit and later a ward.

She retuned home on October 2 and overcame a fear of leaving the house to return to school in January.

Lucy, her family and school are now supporting Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity’s (RMCH Charity's) Be Seen in Green Day to help raise funds to build a 24-hour helipad for the hospital.

Her family say if the air ambulance had been able to land at the hospital itself, she would have received the treatment she needed much sooner.

Mr Harris said: "We assumed that Lucy would have flown straight to the children’s hospital, but instead the helicopter had to land in a nearby park where it was met by a road ambulance."

"Lucy is doing really well and was able to access the care she needed in time. However, we are only too aware how different our situation could have been had she not got to hospital when she did."

The story of Lucy's road to recovery is being shared tonight at 7pm as part of a new Channel 5 series Your Child In Their Hands: Kids Hospital.

To find out more about the appeal visit www.rmchcharity.org.uk.