AMATEUR cricketer Billy Cookson has received a visit from his family as he continues to make a good recovery from serious injuries sustained in a head-on crash with a bus in Australia last October.

Mr Cookson, 23, from Chippenham, was given a welcome by his mum Tracy, his sister Lee-Ann Wills, and his foster sister Becky Harris.

Billy, who plays cricket for Trowbridge Cricket Club, has also picked up a bat again for the first time since the accident. He suffered punctured lungs and a torn liver, broke a leg and both ankles and shattered his right arm in the crash.

During a recent physiotherapy session, he was able to pick up a cricket bat and use it one-handed.

Mr Cookson is now “settling into independent life again”, having left hospital in January, and was delighted to receive his visitors.

“I’m getting back to being in my one-bed apartment and doing things for myself like cleaning and washing.

“It’s really good to be back on my own two feet and doing things that are a little more normal than I previously felt in hospital.”

His dad, Matt Cookson, said: “There’s still a long way to go and more operations will be required but on the whole progress has been very fast and Billy is maintaining his always positive outlook.

“The cricket is only part of his story but is a major motivator in his recovery.”

Billy has been walking just under a mile to physiotherapy sessions each day, where he has now picked up a cricket bat for the first time since the accident.

“I feel like I could play a game, maybe not at the level I was at before, but I almost feel I could go and play with my dad.”

Mr Cookson had travelled to Melbourne to play cricket for Kyabram Cricket Club and was working as a delivery driver for a Club official when the accident happened.

He has had major operations on his elbow and leg since the crash to help his recovery and improve his use of the limbs.

Doctors thought he would be in hospital for up to eight months but he got out in four and has since been making a steady recovery from his injuries.

Mr Cookson had been playing as an overseas cricketer for Kyabram Cricket Club but on his first day as a tools delivery driver his pick-up truck collided with a bus.

He was taken to hospital and placed into an induced coma after undergoing life-saving surgery on his lungs.