INJURED speedway star Lol Hare is due to take a driving test soon. The 32-year-old was paralysed from the chest down in a crash on the Newport circuit in April, but is already back on wheels.

By Tracey Sparling

INJURED speedway star Lol Hare is due to take a driving test soon.

The 32-year-old was paralysed from the chest down in a crash on the Newport circuit in April, but is already back on wheels.

He gets around in a wheelchair and has set his sights on getting a hi-tech, lightweight wheelchair. In the meantime he is busy building up his strength at the gym.

Four wheels is the aim and he has been practising using the controls of half a car in the hospital gym. The car is sliced in half to enable wheelchair users access, as part of learning rehabilitation skills.

Lol is itching to get on with a driving assessment in a dual-control car, which is booked for a month's time.

He underwent a blood transfusion last month which helped wipe out infection and is now getting out and about with friends.

Having teamed up with two younger men on the six-bed ward he has been moved to at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, the trio enjoy trips to a pub down the road.

He has also enjoyed a trip to Oxford to see the speedway.

Lol said: "It was great to see so many friends again."

Members of his care team know of his career on the track and two are motorbike riders themselves. "You couldn't ask for a better team," said Lol.

He added: "I go to the gym every day, sometimes twice a day. I also go to the hydro-therapy pool and I can swim on my back. The water's really hot and it's good for me to work against its resistance.

"I give it 100 per cent, so I'm shattered every day. There are good days and bad days but my movement is improving a lot.

"I'm way ahead of my time and I could be out of hospital much earlier than Christmas, like the doctors predicted."

n Donations to the Lol Hare Appeal for his future needs, run by his aunt Lynn Dennis and former speedway promoter Mike Western, in conjunction with The Evening Star, can be sent to Geraldine Thompson, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.