Chloe Holgate (17) has said she wants to go back to college in September to resume her A-level studies.

Last September, Chloe and a friend were sat on the parapet of Higherford Bridge when she fell backwards onto a dry riverbed. She suffered spinal injuries which have left her paralysed from the chest down. Her only other mobility is movement in both thumbs.

On Monday, she was moved to the Rakehead Rehabilitation Centre at Burnley General Hospital, having spent six months in the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

Now friends and neighbours have rallied to raise money to buy her an electric wheelchair, her passport to freedom.

Her mum Mrs Liz Simpson, who has only returned to her home in Newchurch once a week since the accident, said: "She is amazing. She has lost none of her personality, she is smiling and is the one who has inspired the family and given us hope when we were down."

Chloe's accident is the second tragedy to hit the family in eight years.

Her father, Mr Ian Holgate, of St Giles Terrace, Padiham, died in 2000 in an horrific accident at the former Smurfit paper mill. An inquest was held and a verdict of accidental death recorded.

Chloe had just started at Nelson and Colne College, studying law, business, accountancy and sociology, when the tragedy happened and now her mother is in talks to enable her to return to college.

But for Chloe to be able to get around, she will need an electric wheelchair which costs between £3,000 and £12,000. A fund-raising campaign has begun and is being supported by friends, neighbours and Chloe's dad's former work colleagues.