As injured PC Martin Miles lay in the road in the aftermath of his horrific motorbike smash he managed to ring his wife and tell her he loved her.

Now he says he is just glad to be alive.

Martin spent five weeks instead f the predicted two months in hospital after he was injured riding home along the B4019 from Highworth towards the A419 on February 22 . He was in a collision with a 4x4 vehicle But now after a total of more than 25 hours' of operations the popular bobby is finally back home with his family and looking to the future with his wife Jo and girls Katie, three, and one-year-old Lucie.

"Before the accident Lucie could only take a few steps," he said. "She had changed so much the first time Jo brought her to the hospital.

"She came running up and just to see her standing by herself and toddling down the aisle made me cry. It's something I nearly missed.

"The one thing I'm really grateful for is to see the girls grow up," he said. "That's what keeps me going. I didn't think I would have that at one point."

PC Miles, 48, has had six operations, spent two weeks in intensive care, and had to have his right leg amputated.

He is still not able to use his right arm. Medics have told him he will be lucky to get 50 per cent of the feeling back.

He smashed his elbow and has had metal rods put in his arm. He has also had to have a nerve grafted from his leg to his arm.

In spite of his horrific injuries he was able to get his motorbike helmet off and phone his wife from the scene of the accident.

"I needed to speak to her and tell her I love her and the kids."

He remembers little else about the accident.

"I remember overtaking a couple of cars and the next thing I was on my backside in the middle of the road," he said.

The next thing he knew he was waking up in hospital.

He had three operations before he came round.

"My family were told not to tell me about my leg," he said. "They told me the next day and I had to lift the blankets up because it felt like it was still there.

"My only thing was 'I am here'. Thank God I am because I didn't think I would be."

He spent just over five weeks in hospital instead of the predicted two months."It's brilliant to be home," he said.

"It seems like a lifetime. I have been really lucky. At the end of the day I am here, I am lucky to be here and everything else is a bonus.

"I can get to see my children grow up."

As PC Miles sat in the lounge of his Peatmoor home he was surrounded by welcome home' banners and balloons.

Asked how he is, he replied: "I'm here and that's the main thing. I have had 48 years and am being paid to do a job I love.

"When you go down to the hospital and you see these little kids who are ill you realise you're lucky."

He says he has been overwhelmed by the support he has received. "At hospital it was manic," he said. "I had to set up a rota in the end for visitors and see people in the canteen out of visiting hours.

"We were both amazed by the volume of cards and emails. So many people from Highworth have been in touch, it's unbelievable.

"I am a normal guy doing a normal job, it's the way I am. I just can't believe the support."

PC Miles has visited the prosthetics lab in Oxford for an initial talk about an artificial limb and he is scheduled to return on May 3.

He says that the Great Western Hospital has been superb. "I have got to say they are absolutely brilliant," he said.

"From the time I got picked up off the road to the time I got home they have been fantastic."

He has given nearly 30 years' service to policing in the Swindon area and for the last eight years he has been the community beat officer in Highworth.

"People have said It would be good to see you back walking down Highworth High Street and it would but we've got to wait and see what happens," he said.

"The leg's not the problem. Obviously it'll take time to learn to walk but I'm going to find that easier than getting the hand going.

"I will have to wait and see what happens and that will determine what I do workwise. I'm determined to make the most of what I've got now.

"Being as close as I was it gives you a different outlook."

Jo, 34, is just happy to have him home. "It's great," she said. "It was really hard when he was in intensive care. I have had a lot of support from my mum, dad and sisters, they have been amazing.

"Lots of people have been offering support as well. They've been brilliant."