BRAVE Ben Sheppard's biggest wish for his seventh birthday this month is to leave the hospital where he has been recovering from the car crash which killed his younger sister.

Ben, whose birthday is on October 31, suffered spinal injuries in the car accident in which his five-year-old sister Tamara-Jayne died, and doctors say he will never walk again.

His parents Penny and Lee are over the moon that doctors have started allowing Ben out of hospital to spend weekends at home in Compton Bassett but their wish, too, is to have him home for good.

Other children in Compton Bassett, where the family moved from Calne only in April, have opened their hearts to Ben and given him what his mum described as a fantastic homecoming.

As soon as Ben's new-found friends in the village heard he was at home, they flocked to visit him, showering him with home-made welcome home cards and taking him out to play.

Mrs Sheppard said: "They took it in turns pushing him in his wheelchair. I don't know where they took him, but when they brought him back he was plastered in mud and as happy as could be."

His parents and doctors were amazed that he survived his horrific injuries from the car crash on the A350 near Trowbridge three months ago. Two men travelling in another car, Craig Dicker, 23, and Adam Lumley, 21, both from Melksham, died.

Mr and Mrs Sheppard were injured in the crash and, they said, were prepared for the worst by the doctors at the Bristol Children's Hospital who feared Ben would not pull through.

But they could not account for Ben's bravery, his tenacious grip on life and his effervescent spirit which, Mrs Sheppard said, bore him through the ordeal from which he has emerged with an ever-present smile on his face.

Now he and his family are just waiting for the day when doctors say he can go home for good, although he faces further surgery in the future.

Mrs Sheppard, 35, said: "He has a plate and pins holding his spine where they fixed the break. They will have to come out in about four or six months when hopefully his spine will have knitted together."

Ben was transferred from Bristol to the world-famous spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, where he has been learning to adapt to a wheelchair.

Army officer Major Giles Stibb, 42, of Chipping Norton, has been charged with causing the deaths of Tamara-Jayne Sheppard, Craig Dicker and Adam Lumley by dangerous driving.