THIS is the Happy Christmas family photo that Hampshire dad Mike Blacknell never believed he would be in.

The fact that he is must count as a modern-day miracle. For just a few months ago the 40- year-old Bishopstoke father-of-three "died" under a fork lift truck.

Mike was not breathing when paramedics got to the Eastleigh yard where the two-ton truck had toppled over and crushed his body.

Paramedics, who got there within four minutes of the accident, immediately started work on reviving him.

He was rushed to the intensive care unit of the Southampton General Hospital where his life still hung by a thread.

His 39-year-old wife Jill will always remember picking up the phone on that nightmare September day and getting the shock news which prepared her for the worst.

There were initial fears that Mike might have been brain damaged and Jill recalled: "I was told he was alive but advised to bring the children in to see him."

After gently breaking the news to her sons, Jill said: "I told them to be positive and we sat down and prayed that he would be completely healed."

The family belong to the Victory Gospel Church at North Baddesley and prayers were immediately put on the congregation's website and added to by Christians from as far afield as Kenya and Romania.

Their prayers were answered. For after 48 hours Mike was out of intensive care and on the road to a remarkable recovery.

Now the couple and their sons Sean, 13, Liam, ten, and five-year-old Conor are looking forward to their best ever Christmas.

Mike, who is a fabrica-tor/welder but is licensed to drive fork lift trucks, does not remember anything about the accident.

He said: "I am told that I was not breathing when the paramedics got to me and my brain had been starved of oxygen for a minimum of ten minutes."

Mike had a chipped vertebra, severe crush injuries to the chest and two bleeds of the brain. He is still receiving therapy to his injured right arm but is hoping to return to work in the new year.

He can remember waking up in hospital and as he came round being kissed by his wife who had been keeping a vigil by his bedside.

As he snuggled up to his family for this Daily Echo Christmas photo call, Mike said: "This is going to be a very special Christmas. It has got to be a miracle to end up with no internal injuries and no broken bones after a two-ton truck falls on you." In testimonies to his fellow church congregation members Mike has been giving a moving account of his miracle recovery.

Mike, who was in the Southampton General for seven days, praised the paramedics, firefighters and hospital staff for their skills and care in pulling him through his near-fatal injury.

Jill was always convinced that the family's strong faith would get Mike through - "God is so powerful," she said.

And it has brought a happy Christmas ending to what could have been such a tragic story.