Money continues to roll in for paralysed Warminster teenager Laura Coward who returned home for good last week after almost six months in hospital.

The 17-year-old from Codford needs a £3,500 wheelchair to get around after her spinal cord was severed in a horse riding accident at Horses First in Sutton Veny near Warminster on November 20.

On Friday, Laura’s former classmates at Kingdown School in Woodcock Road raised £1,153 for her appeal by taking part in a non-school uniform day.

Laura told the Wiltshire Times she was taking it one day at a time after being released from Salisbury District Hospital last Wednesday, where she has spent the past five months on a spinal ward after being transfered there from Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

She said: “It feels weird being back home for good because I feel like I have to go back for check ups and things, but I don’t.

“I have been away in the north visiting my step-sister and came home on Sunday so I am still trying to get back into a routine.

“I am looking to the future now and taking each day as it comes.”

When she found out Kingdown School had raised money for the Laura Coward fundraising account, the teenager was really pleased and grateful for their help.

She said: “It was really nice of the school to hold the non-uniform day and raise money for me as I have been left two years now and they are still helping out.”

Laura is fiercely independent and eager to carry on where she left off before the accident.

“I am looking for somewhere to live as I am currently at my mum’s house and want to become even more dependent by moving out and learning to cope on my own without anyone worrying about me.

“I am on the waiting list at the moment and have been told the earliest I can get an adapted house is August next year so I am looking for somewhere temporary to live at the moment.”

Laura is also keen to take up driving lessons again and the funds people have raised will help her pay for an adapted car and any furniture such as a lowered settee that she will need at her new home.

Money has also been raised for Laura’s appeal by the Codford Ladies Circle and through a fundraising night at the Angel pub in Heytesbury.