THE two children injured in the car crash which claimed seven lives in Gloucestershire last week are making good progress in hospital.

Their mother, Tina Stone, who has been dividing her time between their bedsides at two different Bristol hospitals, revealed the news while expressing her thanks for the support she and they are receiving.

Adam Stone, 10, and his sister, Sophie Stone, nine, who are both pupils at Stow Primary School, were rear seat passengers in a green VW Passat which was struck head-on by a Peugeot 306 on the A429 last Friday. Their grandparents and aunt who were also in the vehicle were killed, as were all four occupants of the other car.

Speaking publicly of their condition for the first time, Tina, who is 38 and lives in Stow said: "They are making good progress and Adam particularly is doing really well and even able to have a bit of a conversation.

"Sophie managed to eat something for the first time today and to drink some tea and she got out of bed to play the Playstation for a bit. Adam also managed to have a drink through a straw and to eat some ice-cream.

"They're probably going to be in hospital for at least a few months but I'm hoping they'll be moved to Gloucester before long."

Adam is currently at Frenchay Hospital being treated for a head injury and his little sister is in Bristol Children's Hospital being treated for abdominal injuries.

Dozens of cards have been written to the children and their mum is putting them by their beds so they know how many people are thinking of them and wishing them well.

Their father, Nick Stone, 32, from Weston-super-Mare, is also with them in hospital.

Tina, who is a care worker, continued: "I'd like to thank everyone for all their support, I can't believe how the community has pulled together, it's overwhelming what people are doing. Even little things like people offering to come in and feed the cat are such a help.

She said she would specially like to thanke her aunts and uncles Barbara and Jeff Griffin of kesStow and Graham and Dot Hawkes of Moreton, who have been running her back and forth from the hospitals and have taken over doing everything.

"I don't know what I would have done without them," said Tina.

Paying tribute to the emergency services she continued: "I'm grateful to the fire service, police and ambulance service for everything they did at the scene to help the children and to do what they could for the rest of my family."

Nick Stone added: "On behalf of us both I'd like to thank the staff at both hospitals, they're doing a fantastic job and bringing the children on so well."

This collision not only led to more loss of life than almost any other in the county's history but to Tina losing both her parents and her sister.

"Because of this I've now lost nearly all my immediate family", she said. "But I'm just concentrating on my kids at the moment. I'll deal with trying to come to terms with the rest later, I can't really think about it now."

She added: "While I'm grateful to members of the community for their support, I would ask the media to please respect our privacy at this time."

Paying tribute to her mother, Maggie Kirby, 61, Tina said: "I will miss my mum big time, she was my brick. She doted on her grandchildren and I think they would have moved in there if they'd had the chance, they were so spoiled."

As reported in this week's Journal, Mrs Kirby was a keen bingo player. She and her daughter, Julie, were on their way home from a game having just been collected by Mr Kirby and the grandchildren when the crash occurred.

John Kirby, 63, was born and bred in Broadway but had lived with his family in Stow for 35 years. He worked for a time as a milkman before spending many years as a lorry driver.

Tina said: "He was a very private person and quite shy and he often worked away so not a lot of people would know him. But he was different with me, I was a real Daddy's girl."

Tina's only sibling, Julie Kirby, was 34 when she died. Experiencing learning difficulties, she went to the former Westlands School in Cheltenham and then attended a computer studies course at college in Cirencester. Passionate about cross-stitch, she was teaching her niece Sophie how to cross-stitch before her death.

"Julie loved the kids and was very close to them," said Tina. "They will really miss her and their grandparents."