Image copyright Geordie Allen

A man who was struck by lightning a year ago has said life will never get back to the way it was before the freak accident.

Geordie Allen, 37, was picking his two children up from sports day when he was critically injured in the storm.

His six-year-old son, also called Geordie, was thrown across the schoolyard of Killowen Primary School in Lisburn, County Antrim.

Mr Allen spent a month in a coma and woke up believing he was in his 20s.

He told the BBC's Sunday News programme: "I thought I only had one child.

"I didn't even know I was married."

Mr Allen said he still had no recollection of the day his life changed forever.

Image copyright PACEMAKER

Attempting to explain what happened, he said: "I was up at their sports day, there was meant to be a storm coming, I was supposed to have been running away from the storm with the kids, but I don't remember.

"It's still all a blank, I don't even try to remember any more, I think there's a reason why I forgot it."

His wife, Sharon, does recall the day of the storm. She believes defibrillators, available at the school and used on Mr Allen, saved his life.

"I just remember trying to find everyone, everybody was running past me," she said.

"When I saw Geordie he was lying in a pool of water - about 6ft of water lengthways.

"It was a nightmare. It repeats on me every day, every day I see it.

"Geordie was carrying wee Geordie - he was holding Georgia's hand whenever the lightning hit - and wee Geordie was catapulted across the playground."

When Mr Allen woke from his coma, he was told he would never walk again.

But the father-of-six said he did everything he could to prove them wrong.

"Life will never get back to the way it was, but that's not my goal, my goal now is just to get on my feet and have a normal life," he said.

Listen to the interview in full on Radio Ulster's Sunday News programme at 13:00 BST.