"Boy, five, injured" read the headline. It doesn't begin to sum up the aftermath of pain and anguish five-year-old Dan Bishop and his family went through.

It is a day his mother, Sue King, of Horton Road, Brighton, will never forget.

She recalls: "It started on a blissful Sunday last year, March 24, at 11.15am. It was my partner Andrew's birthday the next day. Dan was going to be looked after by his Nan while we went for lunch with Andrew's parents. We never did get to celebrate it.

"As we were leaving the flat, my lovely five-year-old son saw his friends across the road. Next thing, one of the boys came running over to say Dan had been run over. All my worst fears rushed into my head as I flew to the road.

"One of the men, who had got out of the car, had picked up Dan and handed him to me. Dan was screaming. I looked down and saw his foot and nearly passed out. It seems he had fallen while crossing the road and before he could get up, he was caught under the wheel of a car and dragged along the road.

"Andrew called for an ambulance and told the two men from the car to watch out for it while I tried to calm Dan down. That's the last we saw of the men from the car. They just drove off and got on with their lives."

Dan was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. His leg was broken in two places, the skin had been torn off his foot and the bone was exposed.

There were fears he might lose his leg but doctors managed to save it by inserting four metal pins to hold it together.

The next day the family were told Dan needed a skin graft and he was transferred to East Grinstead. His first operation was to assess what was needed. It turned out to be a 15cms by 7cms area so they needed to take skin off his back. Two days later, Dan went back to theatre for the skin graft.

Sue said: "It was now Thursday and I hadn't left his side. This was a 12-hour operation so I was told to go home and get some rest.

"When I went back, for the first time since the accident, Dan seemed to be aware of what was going on around him. He hated taking his medicine and cried. He also needed another operation - his fourth in less than a week.

"Then the nurses had to start changing his dressings and cleaning his pins regularly. It was the first time we saw his foot properly. Dan just screamed and screamed. I had to hold him down and I could feel his whole body shake. He couldn't bear to look."

After two weeks he was transferred back to Brighton and eventually allowed home. He needed a wheelchair and a little Zimmer frame to help him move around.

"A nurse came to see him regularly to change his dressing. He screamed every time and I would have to hold him down.

"Dan had to go back into hospital to have the pins removed and a full plaster cast put on his leg. Two weeks later he had another cast put up to his knee. Every other week he was having x-rays.

"I tried hard to keep it all going, looking after Dan and working full-time. But then it all got too much. The people at work were great but I had delayed shock trauma. I was signed off from work.

"I'm not sure what the long-term effects will be on Dan. He hates crossing the road and gets panicky when he hears a car.

"I'm the one who had the sleepless nights and what I still think about is why the man, who handed my son to me, got back into the car with his friend and drove away.

"I'm sure they didn't give Dan a second thought. And I'm sure they never realised that hitting my son with their car caused nine months' of suffering.

Sue, 33, went back to work in January. Dan, now six, is back at school and is catching up with his work. Sue and her mum took him to Spain last month - his first foreign holiday and a treat for coping with his injuries so bravely.

His foot is still badly swollen, he has scars on his leg and down his back and he needs a further operation to reshape his foot.

The two men in the car, believed to have been a silver Rover, were never caught.