A NIGHT out in Blackpool eight weeks ago has shattered the lives of a 30-year-old security guard and his family.

For Bosnian-born Salem Lukic - known as Sal to his many friends in Blackpool - ended up with his skull cracked on the pavement after an assault outside a seafront nightclub, his brain damaged possibly forever.

For six weeks, while he was in a coma, his fiancee Emma Webster and brother Samir, 25, kept a vigil by his bedside, while his mother - herself ill with heart problems - flew in from America to be with him.

Two weeks ago he nearly died of a heart attack during an operation to clear a lung infection.

Now Sal, who worked at the Coral Island amusement complex, can open his eyes but still does not recognise anyone, he cannot speak or walk or feed himself, and Emma spends six hours a day at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, washing him, exercising his limbs, talking to him and playing his favourite music in hopes that a flicker of recognition could start his recovery.

Emma, 22, of Boothley Road, North Shore, had been engaged to Sal for a year and lost the baby she had been expecting as the stress took its toll. She has also given up her job as a sales executive at Kingston Mitsubishi to be with him.

Said Emma: "I'm going to stick by Sal for however long it takes. He needs all the support he can get and I'll give it to him, however much he needs. "What I want to tell people is, before they get involved in any fights, think twice about what it can do - they only have to be hit in this way once and their lives are changed forever.

"Sal was just on a night out with his brother and friends. Now his life is never going to be as it was before and his family's life has been completely shattered.

"His mother and brother are devastated, I've given up my job and I've lost my baby - it's a snowball effect. It doesn't just affect one person, it's everyone else around him."

Sal, she said, was the kindest, most considerate person she had ever met. He and his brother had come from war-torn Bosnia six years ago to make a new life.

Now Emma, Samir and his employers at Northern Security are hoping to raise funds to help Sal's rehabilitation. Special events and collections are being planned.

"No-one can say how long it's going to take," said Emma, "but it's going to be a long time and he's going to need a lot of help and support. Even if he does recover he will need walking and speech aids.

"We're trying to provide for his future, to make his recovery as complete as it can be."

Several people are on police bail while inquiries into the incident continue. A decision on any charges is expected within a month.

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