An eight-year-old cyclist who was involved in a collision with a car could owe his life to a campaign run by the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph.

When a car hit Liam Harris near his home his bike was destroyed – but Liam escaped with just minor cuts and bruises.

And his mum, Sara-Jane, believes his life may have been saved as a result of the paper’s cycling campaign, which ran during the first week of the school summer holiday.

During the Safe Cycling campaign, Sara-Jane read about other cycle accident victims in the paper, and decided to buy her son a helmet.

She said: “He came out riding on the pavement, then shot out.

“The car clipped his back wheel and he was very lucky to escape with scraped arms.

“He’d only been out for five minutes. But the helmet needs replacing as it’s got scrapes on it. He’s a very lucky boy.

“He normally doesn’t wear one, I had to nag and nag to get him to wear it.

“But he was just so stubborn. His attitude before was they were not cool and he thought they looked daft. But he’s definitely keen on wearing them now.”