The family of a young girl left brain-damaged after collapsing just days after her 16th birthday hope she will be back home within months as she finally returned to Kent.

Rubie Boyton has spent every day in hospital in London since the fateful afternoon last May when she suffered a cardiac arrest in the Bridgefield Park play area in Ashford.

The teenager from Pluckley stopped breathing and was only kept alive because of the valiant efforts of a friend who performed CPR before paramedics arrived.

But, with her brain starved of oxygen for 31 minutes, the youngster sustained life-changing injuries and was immediately flown to King's College Hospital to be placed into an induced coma and put on a ventilator.

After more than nine months at the London infirmary, Rubie has now been transferred back to the county and is currently being treated at the specialist Harvey Neuro-Rehabilitation Ward at Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Her mum, Kim Tucker, says she is making several positive steps in her journey to recovery, including being fitted with a pain pump to deliver medication into her spinal fluid to help manage her dystonia.

The 42-year-old said: "The main reason she was moved is so she can be closer to home.

"So she is now on an adult ward but isn't receiving rehab as she isn't medically stable enough yet.

"There's been times where she has been vomiting quite a lot and having spikes in her temperatures because of infections, but her blood tests have been showing fine.

"Even though she can't eat or drink orally, she has been engaging in terms of speech and language and showing signs of communication.

"Sometimes when she's asked a question she can blink if it's a yes and shut her eyes if it's a no. She was also nodding recently too.

"Rubie can stretch her arms now more than 90 degrees, so some things have improved and made her feel more comfortable.

"She is also able to sit in a wheelchair better too now having been cramping up before.

"One thing she did almost as soon as she arrived at Canterbury is pass urine on her own, which feels like a great little victory as it shows her brain is now thinking differently to before."

When she was first taken to King’s Hospital, Rubie was placed in the paediatric intensive care unit and then a high dependent unit.

She was then moved to a brain and spinal ward after being able to eventually breathe on her own.

Kim and Rubie’s step dad, Simon Head, 36, both left their jobs at the Weald of Kent Golf Course and Hotel last summer as they continue to navigate the demands of home life and being with Rubie.

The pair live with her brothers, Caylen, 24, and four-year-old Hunter, sisters, Abbi, 19, and River, three, and 11-month-old nephew Luka.

And in an attempt to get Rubie back living with the family, the couple have now begun to build an extension at their property off Station Road.

Planning permission has been approved for Rubie to have "her own little house" connecting directly to the family home.

However, although the pair are eligible for the disabled facilities grant, the extension will set the family back about £50,000 - - a figure Kim is having to reach by selling items and fundraising.

Donate to the fundraiser here.

They hope the extension will be complete by the summer, allowing Rubie to finally move back home.

Kim added: “It would be easier if Rubie were at home and she can temporarily do that now by being in our living room.

"But she wouldn't have anywhere to be showered and couldn't live here permanently due to everything not being the right size.

"So it would certainly be a lot easier once the extension is finished as it will see Rubie basically have her own little house.

"She'll have her own front door which connects to our living room which will provide better access.

"Rubie will have her own bedroom, sitting area and wet room.

"There will also be a kitchen area for the carers who will take over during the night, but she'll still be joined to us.

"It should be ready quite soon, but a lot is weather-dependant at the moment."

Despite remaining on seizure medication, doctors are in the process of reducing her dosage for the youngster - who loved to street dance and aspired to work in hair and beauty prior to her illness.

"There is still medication which needs to be reduced and it's a case of waiting to see what happens but we're getting closer,” said Kim.

"Once she's home, we would be Rubie's carers but also have a carer so we can sleep overnight.

"But we're just focusing on getting her home and settled, then off medication before looking at rehab afterwards."

Rubie suffered a cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation - sudden arrhythmia when the heart stops beating because of an irregular rhythm.

After her friend’s life-saving resuscitation efforts, paramedics used a defibrillator in a bid to shock her heart into restarting.