A Bradford mum wept tears of joy as her seriously injured son was flown home from France yesterday.

Youngster Graham Shillabeer - who had been in a coma following a road accident in France - was reunited with his tearful mum after an emergency airlift back to Britain.

The 12-year-old, who was in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in Dijon for nearly five weeks, was flown into Leeds Bradford Airport in an air ambulance.

The small, twin engine turbo prop plane landed at 4pm yesterday - 15 minutes ahead of schedule - and taxied to the side of the airport apron.

His mum Georgina Puttock burst into tears as she had the first glimpse of her son since the bicycle he was riding on a French village street was hit from behind by a car on May 16.

His family faced a bill of at least £5,000 to get him home after the accident and the reunion followed more than a week of diplomatic negotiations after the T&A highlighted his plight.

Bradford's MPs Marsha Singh and Gerry Sutcliffe took up the family's fight to bring Graham home.

The cost of the flight was unexpectedly met by the car driver's insurance company.

Graham had been thrown on to the bonnet of the car and into the windscreen before falling into the road.

He was critically ill in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and only came off a life support machine on Sunday.

His mum and her sister Carol Whitaker stood watching yesterday as an ambulance crew helped the two French doctors lift Graham's stretcher down the steps of the plane.

The youngster looked bewildered and a little scared as he was carried into the ambulance where his mum sat holding his hand, watching his face in silence.

Graham, who lives with his mum and five brothers and sisters in Lymington Drive, Holme Wood, was taken to the paediatric unit at Leeds General Infirmary where his condition was later described as stable.

Miss Puttock, who is divorced from her husband, was full of praise for the T&A.

The family could not afford the cost of the flight and was trying to think of ways of raising the money.

"One driver in France contacted a national newspaper and we have tried everyone - but only the T&A has helped us," she said.

On Tuesday she had a surprise phone call from a doctor in the French hospital telling her her son could be home today.

"They said with all the World Cup planes coming into France it might take longer.

"Then they phoned up that night and said he'll be arriving tomorrow - I was speechless."

The youngster's lorry driver father, also called Graham, said : "I think it's great - I'm over the moon.

"I think he will be a lot better in England - we just hope he will pull through all right.

"He isn't as bad as he was - he is still a bit slow in his speech but that's partly because of his broken jaw.

"He can vaguely remember the accident but he can't remember anything about the last five weeks.

"I think it's may take a long time to get him back to normal like he was."

Mr Shillabeer was today on his way back to his home in Allerton.

The youngster had travelled down to Italy in his father's lorry and the pair were returning to Calais when the accident happened during an over night stop in a village near Dijon.

Mr Shillabeer had filled in an E111 form for his son to cover the cost of medical treatment in case of accident.

But he found it did not cover medical evacuation back to Britain in an emergency.

The British consulate in nearby Lyons started talks with hospital authorities and French health department officials in an effort to get the authorities to make an exception to their

strict rules.

MP Gerry Sutcliffe contacted Secretary of State for Social Security Harriet Harman and Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Marsha Singh wrote to Health Secretary Frank Dobson.

Mr Sutcliffe said: "It's great news he is back home.

"I will make sure that through some other means we will look after the cost if there is a dispute later as to who was to blame for the accident.

"At the moment at least it gives us a bit of time to get things organised."

A spokesman at the hospital in Dijon said: "Normally in France if a car is involved in an accident with a cyclist or a pedestrian it is assumed it was the car driver's fault.

"If at a later date the driver is found not to be at fault then the insurance company will claim the money back - but I don't know from whom in this case."

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