A MUM has returned home to her family for the first time since she suffered severe brain damage 19 months ago.

Donna Ormondroyd was hospitalised after she collapsed in August 2015.

Since then, her husband Gregg Ormondroyd has worked tirelessly to bring Donna, 36, home to him and their four children in Shipley.

Speaking yesterday, Gregg said: “I was like a cat on a hot tin roof this morning. I couldn’t wait - I was up and about.

“The kids are absolutely loving it. They are excited.

“This is the end of one chapter and the start of another new one. Nineteen months we have waited for this, for her to come home and be with the kids.

“I have been to hell and back on more than one occasion. I have had to fight so hard for this. Finally all the hard work has paid off. And so many people have helped out.”

Donna, who also has two other children, spent four hours at home yesterday. She is expected to move home full-time in four weeks.

“This was the start of a four-week phased return,” said Gregg, 30. “This was her first time at the house.

“I am just trying to take it all in, really. It still seems quite surreal.

“It has taken a lot of hard work for us to get here. I don’t want her to go back now.”

Gregg said of the couple’s 21-month-old daughter Honey: “It is the first time she has had her mum at home with her, really. So it is the start of another new relationship for Honey.

“It is a new relationship for all of them really. The children have had 19 months with it just being me. I have done all this to make sure the kids have their mum back.”

Gregg said Blake, six, Rocco, five, and Savannah, three, were delighted to have their mum home, but added: “We are trying to keep it as normal as possible for them, really.

“Once she is home full-time, we will have a party, but for now we are just letting them get used to it and letting Donna get used to her surroundings.”

Gregg said he was still fundraising to help pay for a sensory room that will aid Donna’s rehabilitation. The sensory room will be next to Donna’s bedroom, which Gregg said looks out over “rolling hills”.

On Donna’s health, Gregg said: “There has been a slight improvement and she is definitely more responsive. She has been using a sensory room at the nursing home and doing stuff like moving her head from side to side. We desperately want to get the sensory room done. I believe she will improve when she is home with the kids around. The kids were her world.

“It can only be positive from now on. There have been too many negatives.”

Donna collapsed at the family’s former home in Tyersal in August 2015, with scans revealing massive brain damage.

She was moved to a rehabilitation centre in Goole in February last year, before moving to a nursing home in Nab Wood, Bradford, just before Christmas.