A woman who was left paralysed after a kidnapping ordeal is now learning to swallow again, according to her mother.
Angel Lynn suffered catastrophic brain injuries after she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and fell out of a moving van at 60mph.
The 21-year-old could not eat, walk or talk by herself after the incident in 2020.
Her mum, Nikki, now says Angel is regaining movement on her left side and is learning how to swallow again.
Mrs Lynn told BBC Radio Leicester: "She was really, really badly injured.
"They said she wouldn't survive the night and that she wasn't going to wake up at all. Now she's getting lots of physio. She's having speech and language therapy.
"She is learning how to swallow again, and then she won't need PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) feeding because she doesn't eat.
"She is starting to move her left side very slightly and she's got a communication machine.
"She is communicating in little bits but she still gets really tired. It is nice that she understands everything you're saying to her."
Angel is receiving treatment at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, although she is taken home every day to spend time with her family.
Mrs Lynn is "so proud" of her daughter's progress in her recovery, adding that she's "so much better than she was".
The 21-year-old is able to write a few things down and has even helped her mum put the washing out to dry.
A communication device will be fitted to her wheelchair in August, enabling her to tap letters with her right hand to speak to her family.
It comes after Angel was forced into a van by her former boyfriend Chay Bowskill and his accomplice Rocco Sansome in Leicestershire in September 2020.
Bowskill, who threw Angel into the van before she was found seriously injured on the A6, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in January.
He was found guilty of kidnap, controlling and coercive behaviour and perverting the course of justice.
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Angel's ex-boyfriend was cleared of “unintentionally causing her grievous bodily harm” because it could not be proven how she left the vehicle.
But the Lynns were outraged and at the Court of Appeal, his sentence was increased to 12 years.
The sentence appeared to be "unduly lenient", the Solicitor General, Alex Chalk QC said.
Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice following the ruling, Angel's aunt Jackie Chamberlain said the family was "relieved" by the sentence increase.
