Darren Gibson's life changed forever when he was struck by lightning while cycling in the French mountains.

The 35-year-old teacher from Brighton was hit by a lightning bolt so powerful it ripped off his clothes, sent him flying from his mountain bike and left him with severe damage to the nerves in his body.

Yesterday, after a six-month battle to regain his strength through a gruelling rehabilitation programme, Darren took his first step towards riding a bike again.

He was given a £1,300 mountain bike by the makers of the helmet which cushioned his head and almost certainly saved his life when he was thrown ten metres into rocks by the lightning bolt.

Specialized was so impressed with his determination it asked Rayment Cycles, in Circus Parade, Brighton, to present him with one of its bikes.

Darren, who teaches at Beacon Community College in Crowborough and is a keen cyclist, had been riding in the French Pyrenees close to the town of Luchon Bagneres with his friend Stuart Thomson when the lightning struck in August last year.

Tourists with first-aid skills saved his life at the scene, but what followed was a six-month struggle to recover through hours of painstaking therapy, physio and specialist rehabilitation treatment.

The electric charge caused him so much pain doctors had to send him into a drug-induced coma for six weeks while he recovered from the trauma.

When he awoke he was partially paralysed, had lost 20 per cent of his vision and was suffering from short-term memory loss.

His mother Pauline and brother Mark flew over to comfort him and sat by his bedside as doctors told him he might never fully recover from the ordeal.

Darren said: "I'm coping all right now. It's been a long road to recovery.

"I'm not cycling far yet. I may have the odd foray up the road and back, but my legs are still weak. At the time it happened I was the fittest I'd ever been.

"I don't remember anything about it. My friend Stuart said he was screaming when the lightning struck.

"He said the world just seemed to go into black and white, like the negative of a photograph and it was like riding through a force field. In a flash it was over, but he found me lying naked. The sweat from your body turns to steam so quickly that it just rips your clothes off.

"I was lying there smouldering, my heart not beating and I was not breathing. Stuart ran to fetch help and fortunately we hadn't ridden too far.

"I was given emergency first aid and mouth-to-mouth at the scene, but the only thing I remember is waking up six weeks later in hospital.

"Apparently, I was screaming that I wanted to die because I was in so much pain, but I don't remember that either, which is probably a good thing."

Mr Gibson was airlifted to Rangueil in Toulouse, where medics put him into the deep coma.

He was flown home six weeks later and spent another month recovering on morphine at Brighton General Hospital.

He has spent the rest of the time in and out of the rehabilitation unit at Southlands Hospital in Shoreham and had only been able to walk with a walking frame until a few weeks ago.

He will never regain his lost sight, but he said that was a small price to pay.

He has now started working at school again part-time and is hoping to begin teaching full-time within the next few weeks.