Guy Harris was left with a severe spinal cord injury after being hit by a lorry while crossing the road in Sheffield in 2003 which left him paralysed from the waist down.

But Mr Harris was determined to recover and is now walking with the aid of crutches.

He was treated at the Mind Clinic in central London, which also helped Gemma Quinn after she was paralysed from the neck down by a road accident.

Miss Quinn made headlines when she wrote a letter of support to actor Christopher Reeve who was left paralysed after a riding accident in 1995.

She was awarded a Child of Courage award in 1996, and went on to win the friendship of Princess Diana and footballer Jamie Redknapp.

A form of body and mind therapy called Mind Instructor is taught at the clinic where Mr Harris began treatment in 2006 under the care of Hratch Ogali.

Mr Harris, who is from Hampshire, was hit by a lorry in Sheffield in 2003 when he misjudged the direction of traffic and looked right instead of left.

Mr Harris said: "I accepted that I had to learn to manage my body as it was but I never accepted I was not going to walk.

"They (doctors) looked at me in that way which suggested they thought I was in denial.

"But I was thinking 'This is not me, I'm not out'."

Mark Bacon, head of research for the charity Spinal Research, welcomed the news but urged caution and said more research was needed.

He said some people can make use of muscles or systems that had not been so badly damaged, which was more "compensation" than "regeneration".