A SISTER is pleading for help to pay for her paralysed brother to be flown back to the UK for treatment.

Tom Lawrence has just come out of a coma after having a stroke in Spain in May.

His sister, Mandi Holder, said the hospital can no longer treat him adding that he needs to return to his home country for rehabilitation and to recover.

But his family cannot afford the £32,000 bill for the medical aircraft he needs which has a doctor and two nurses on board.

Mr Lawrence did not have travel insurance and his European Health Insurance Card only covers him for six months of treatment.

Neither the Spanish or UK authorities are willing to pay so Mrs Holder, 52, is appealing for donations from the public.

Mr Lawrence, 57, flew to Gran Canaria in May to house sit for a friend and look after her pets while she was away.

His niece Sarah arranged to join him there but he never turned up at the airport to meet her as planned. She discovered him lying on the floor of the house - he had been there for seven hours and was unconscious.

The former Brighton taxi driver and drummer for band Road Runners was rushed to hospital where it was discovered he had a bleed on his brain which caused the stroke.

He was in a coma until the end of May.

Although the bleed on the brain dispersed, he awoke completely paralysed on his right side and cannot speak. He then caught pneumonia.

He has lost five stone but is alert, squeezes the hands of his relatives and nurses, waves and tries to get out of bed using his left side.

Mrs Holder, of Hove, said: "It was so lucky Sarah arrived when she did. But now they are just leaving him lying there in hospital. I do not know which way to turn, so I am asking for help.

"He is so responsive, he smiles, he cries. But the hospital even asked me to consider euthanasia but I refused. I feel he still has his life ahead of him. His partner Michelle died from cancer just months before he went to Spain.

"He used to live in Peacehaven and then moved to Tunbridge Wells but was planning to move to Hove after she died. He had problems with his blood pressure but it was being treated, he was absolutely fine before he left."

To donate visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/MandiForTom