The family of a brain-damaged man "snubbed" by the NHS is bidding to raise £6,000 for treatment in Italy.

Grant Rainford, 33, suffered serious head injuries in a mountain bike accident almost five years ago and spent four and a half months in a coma.

Now his mother and father, Tony and Grace, want him to continue specialist treatment provided by Russian doctor Alexander Klimenov, who recently moved his practice from East Grinstead to Genoa.

Mr Rainford, 65, of Seamill Park Crescent, Worthing, said he had been forced to seek assistance abroad because the NHS had refused to help Grant, who is confined to a wheelchair.

The family, backed by East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton, has written three times to the Department of Health about their son's plight.

Mr Rainford said: "The NHS has more or less written Grant off. They have said he is disabled for life and that is the end of it."

Mr Rainford initially paid for private physiotherapy but soon ran out of money and must now rely on fund-raising for further treatment.

He said there had been some improvements in Grant's condition since he started seeing Dr Klimenov, who provides his patients with amino acid tablets linked to intensive physiotherapy.

The tablets are thought to start a chemical reaction and reactivate parts of the brain where cells had died.

But now the family must travel to Genoa to continue the treatment, which will cost up to £6,000 every four to six months.

A Department of Health spokesman said he was unable to comment on individual cases.

Grant's friends and relatives are holding a sponsored walk along Worthing seafront from the pier to Sea Lane Cafe, on Sunday, March 3, to raise cash.

The Rainfords hope to fly to Italy at the end of April for ten days.

Grant was cycling on the Downs at Chanctonbury Ring, north of Worthing, on April 3, 1997, when he was injured.

He spent 13 months in Southlands Hospital, Shoreham, before being allowed home.