Brain injury Anglesey soldier on way back to UK

A soldier who suffered a head injury after being knocked down by a car near his base in Germany is being flown back to the UK.

Queen's Dragoon Guardsman Oliver Robinson, 25, from Anglesey, has been in hospital since the accident on 25 March.

His grandmother, Pat Clarke, from Holyhead, said the move back to the UK would help his recovery.

She said the family had been on a "roller coaster of emotion".

She said her grandson's condition had improved since he was first in hospital, after he had to have part of his skull removed, but he was still having trouble speaking.

"He can say the odd word, but I tried to speak to him on the phone and although he could understand what I was saying he couldn't get the words out to reply," she said.

"It's a miracle, though, and we are so, so pleased about how things are going.

"To other people it's two months [since the accident] and he's done really well, but for the family it's gone from his parents thinking they might have to decide to switch his machine off, to how he is now."

Mrs Clarke said she could not praise the care he had received enough.

"The German hospital was brilliant, and if it was broken limbs then there would be no problem with him staying there, but as it is his speech I feel it's important now that he is treated somewhere where he hears his own language."

Mrs Clarke said her grandson was being flown with his parents Mandy and Andrew to Heathrow Airport, near London, on Tuesday.

He will then be taken to the defence medical rehabilitation centre Headley Court in Surrey.

"The support we've had has been overwhelming and people have prayed for him, even people who never usually pray have prayed for him."

He needed to come home so there would be "some resemblance of normal life".

"We'd like to thank everybody for making this possible," she added.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been asked to comment.