Six months ago little Alex Stephens was fighting for his life after being knocked down by a car outside his home.

But today the five-year-old from Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, can be seen out and about on his bike.

He has made a full recovery from six broken ribs, a broken arm, punctured lung, several skull fractures and bruising on the brain in the accident last summer.

He was initially unable to eat or even smile, but is now back at home in Arndale and has been making the most of this week’s snow with his friends and his older siblings – Carl, 14, and Ebony, eight.

Mum Becky Stephens said that the accident had initially left Alex unconscious and doctors had told her that the prognosis was bad.

“We can’t believe it, I never thought he would recover like this after what happened,” she said.

“They told me they didn’t think he was going to make it. But he’s doing brilliantly, he has made a full recovery and is back at school. He was five a couple of weeks after the accident and wasn’t well enough to celebrate it.

“But he had a bike for Christmas and has been racing around on that. He loves the snow. His face lit up when he looked out the window in the morning and he’s been making snowballs on the way to school.”

Mrs Stephens said that his accident had also been tough for her other children.

“They are over the moon that he is so much better. At the time they were both devastated. My daughter didn’t actually witness it but saw the aftermath when we were waiting for the ambulance so it did affect her quite a bit.

“A lot of the children there did see what happened.”

Alex, a pupil at the Wilfred Owen School, was playing on his scooter with friends in the cul-de-sac when he was hit by a 4×4 in July. He spent two weeks in Birmingham Children’s Hospital, before being transferred to hospital in Shrewsbury.

By Alys Cummings