A GRATEFUL family have enjoyed an extra special Christmas, thanks to caring staff and customers at the Co-Op in Oswaldtwistle.

The Union Road store rallied round to organise a fund-raising raffle for checkout assistant Debbie Phillipson, 36, who suffered a stroke in early November.

Debbie came home to Curlew Close, in Oswaldtwistle, two days before Christmas and there was £500 waiting to help her husband, Ed, and their six-year-old daughter, Kirsty, celebrate her hospital homecoming in style.

Mr Phillipson said: "The staff and customers at the Co-Op are simply the best. It made our Christmas."

Debbie, who suffered the sudden stroke at home, spent six weeks in the rehabilitation unit at Park Lee Hospital, Blackburn.

Mr Phillipson paid tribute to the "fantastic" staff at the unit.

He said: "They are the ones that got Debbie to walk and talk and she is making a good recovery.

"She can walk a little bit but has not fully recovered the use of her right arm. Obviously it will take time.

"Hopefully, being so young, she will make an almost complete recovery."

Mr Phillipson said he also wanted to thank his employers and colleagues at James Boardman heating engineers in Blackburn for their help and support.

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