'I feel for the lad, but at the end of the day I've got a life sentence'

BRAVE VICTIM REVEALS SYMPATHY FOR THUG WHO LEFT HIM PARALYSED AFTER NIGHTCLUB ATTACK.

- ANDREW BARDSLEY

To an outsider looking in, Rob Harris was living a great life. He had his health, two daughters, a successful business career and enjoyed regular trips away to play golf and watch his beloved Manchester City.

But something niggled in the back of his mind. His inseparable twin brother Rhys remembers Rob regularly and confidently predict that 'something bad' was going to happen to him in his 50s.

Whether it was 'gallows humour,' or just a macabre hunch, even Rob couldn't have possibly imagined that his prediction would come true and a night of horror would change his life forever. But he will not let it define him and is looking ahead to a new chapter of his life and his new normal.

Enjoying a night out with friends in Altrincham, Rob was pushed down the stairs of a nightclub in a completely unprovoked, horrific attack. He broke his neck and was left paralysed from the neck down.

For the following months, he was close to death as doctors desperately tried to save him and help him overcome serious obstacles. Two weeks after the assault, Rob said he 'essentially died for 12 minutes' after suffering a series of cardiac arrests.

He suffered blood clots on his lungs, liver failure and infection.

He was fed through a tube for months and had to learn to breathe and speak again. Ten months on, Rob is continuing his road to recovery and hopes to finally return home soon.

It will be a new reality for him, after having to move his bedroom downstairs due to being consigned to a wheelchair. But despite the horror of what he has suffered, Rob maintains an incredibly positive outlook, hoping to resume his business career and wanting to help others.

Rob told the M.E.N: "Don't get me wrong, it's difficult. I've found it difficult so far. It is what it is.