HE IS extra special, brave and courageous - and to his mum he is little short of a miracle.

Six-year-old Ryan Craig Cooper has defied death with great aplomb and has a smile to melt the heart of everyone who meets him.

Now, the Padiham youngster has been nominated for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph Children of Courage Award.

Ryan was knocked down in August last year while playing out with friends near his Russell Terrace home. His injuries, which have kept him in hospital ever since, are horrific. He suffered brain damage, a cracked pelvis, broken collar bone and broken teeth.

He spent two weeks in intensive care at Pendlebury Children's Hospital. His lungs collapsed three times and he went into heart failure and he has lost his sight completely.

Now, in the Deerplay Ward at Burnley General Hospital, Ryan has just completed six months in hospital, but leaves the ward to go to Primrose Hill school every day.

Mum Debbie Hughes, said: "To me he is an absolute miracle. There were so many times when it was touch and go whether he would live. His sight returned gradually and he is beginning to use his arms again.

"He says he is going to stand up and walk and, believe me, he will do."

Ryan's nomination for the award came from family friend Maureen Harwood, of Lancaster Drive, Hapton, who said: "I feel Ryan is extra special, very brave and courageous.

"Through all his pain and intensive physiotherapy Ryan has had a smile for everyone. I think his willpower is breathtaking. Ryan, who was a pupil at Hapton Methodist School, has a sister, Claire, 11.

On the day of his accident, Ryan had just completed a 12-mile walk raising money for multiple sclerosis research. Fund-raising in his name still continues. Mrs Harwood and Ryan's aunt Tracy Wilkinson and their friends have raised £700 for the intensive care unit at Pendlebury, Padiham firefighters and workers at Potterton Myson, Padiham, raised £552 for the fund, which is titled 'A Gift from Ryan to Pendlebury Children's Hospital.'

The Children of Courage Award is sponsored by Riva Clubs. Readers are invited to nominate a special child who has touched the lives of others by helping someone in a special way, overcoming an illness or raising money for charity over the past year.

Entries can be posted or handed in at the promotions department at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph offices in High Street, Blackburn; Keirby Walk, Burnley; Edgar Street, Accrington and Bridge Street, Darwen.

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