ANXIOUS loved-ones spent the festive period keeping a bedside vigil after Stroud man Wade Wills was seriously injured in a road accident during Christmas week.

The 24-year-old was left with a broken back, two broken legs, a collapsed lung, three broken ribs and serious head injuries after the accident.

Wade's injuries were initially treated as critical but he is now on the mend in intensive care - and those close to him say he is a fighter.

Wade, who lived with his grandmother and twin brother Aubrey in Brick Row, Stroud, was hit by a car as he walked passed the Cotswold Edge Golf Club at Wotton-Under-Edge in the early hours of Saturday, December 17.

His family are not sure why he was walking alone so late at night. He was involved in a collision with a green Daewoo car at 5.25am.

Wade's girlfriend of four years, Helen Griffiths, 20, is among those waiting for him to recover.

"He's getting better now but at first doctors only gave him a 40 percent chance of pulling through," she said.

"But I know Wade and he is a strong person, he's a real fighter and I just know he will fight his way better.

"None of us know why he was walking home at that time in the morning. No one knows where his mobile phone is, his trainers or his top because he was only wearing a large jacket, jeans and socks when he was taken to hospital."

She said his friends were all desperate for him to get well again.

"He's well known in Stroud and has a lot of friends because he's such a friendly and helpful guy," she said.

Wade was taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and he is now awake and in a stable condition after surgery.

He and his brother were brought up by their grandmother, Margret (corr) Wills, 67.

"It was a terrible Christmas for us with all this going on," she said.

"I was so worried about him but now I know he's pulling through it's put my mind at rest.

"His brother is so upset about it he has hardly been home since."