Little bridesmaid Sophie Graham - mowed down and left for dead in a horrific hit and run - has finally gone home after making a miraculous recovery.

Doctors warned five-year-old Sophie's parents, Mark and Andrea, that she may not pull through following the accident.

But they were amazed when she woke and her first words from her hospital bed were: "Can I have a bacon buttie and some ice cream?"

Sophie was knocked down by banned driver Garry Wilkinson, 30, as she paraded for pals in her bridesmaid's outfit.

Wilkinson, who already had a string of driving convictions, fled the scene of the accident in Gateshead, without a thought for his young victim.

Sophie suffered a double fracture to her skull and a double fracture of her right ankle as well as cuts and bruises.

She also needed skin grafts on her legs at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.

But the brave bridesmaid defied the doctors to make a full recovery.

Overjoyed Mark, 28, of Gateshead said: "It's just amazing. You couldn't see Sophie for wires and tubes.

"You wouldn't think anything was wrong with her to look at her now.

Sophie is now back home and is enjoying playing with her brothers Matthew, six and three-year-old Ben.

Andrea said: "It was the most fantastic experience to see Sophie come through the front door.

"The last few weeks have been a nightmare. In the end, the only thing which kept me going was when Sophie came around and smiled and I knew then she was still with us.

"Sophie is a toughie. She was born six weeks early and was really quite poorly. I think it has turned her into a little fighter."

Hit-and-run driver Wilkinson, of Wardley, Gateshead, was jailed and banned from the roads for the third time in less than two years for knocking down Sophie.

In 1999 he served a six month sentence for driving whilst disqualified and was banned for three years.

But the following year, on his release from prison, he was back behind the wheel once more and was again banned for three years.

Undeterred, Wilkinson bought himself a G-reg Volvo car just two days before he mowed down Sophie while driving down the narrow street in Gateshead where she lived.