THE sight of her teenage son "covered in blood" and badly injured is a memory likely to remain with Alloa mum Louise Graham for a long time.

Just a few days after Christmas she received a phone call from her boy Ross to say he had crashed his brand new Carrera mountain bike and was hurt.

Unsure what to really expect, she raced over to him and found him bloodied, bruised and in shock.

The 13-year-old was thrown 20ft downhill, knocked unconscious, and left with numerous cuts and bruises and a broken wrist.

Recalling the day, Louise told the Advertiser: "When I got to him, he was a bloody mess.

"He came off the bike and tumbled and the bike landed on top of him. His face took the full impact of it, right across the helmet.

"He was bleeding everywhere and had quite a big gash to his lip. He has an imprint of the brakes on his leg.

"His bike was wrecked; his jacket was ripped; his arm broken; his teeth messed up.

"He's panicking, his hands are bleeding, his legs are a mess. I wasn't sure what was going to happen."

She added: "I saw his friend's faces as well; they were pure white with shock.

"Physically, as a parent, it made me sick. I was ill and I was shaking so much because I could see him covered in blood."

On Saturday, December 29, Ross and his friends had been out at The Jumps – a small bike track in the woods near to Morrison's.

As he was riding down the hill towards the Mar Policies, his bike was caught by a huge pot hole and he was launched from the saddle.

After tumbling down the 20ft slope, his bike followed behind him, striking him flush on the head.

Fortunately, he had been wearing his Mongoose full-face protection helmet, which took the full force of the impact.

Now the duo are keen to highlight the importance of riders wearing headgear while out and about.

Louise said: "We said to him on Christmas Day: No helmet, no bike. It doesn't matter where you're going; whether just up to the shops or to your gran's.

"He hated the one we got him and he thought we were being quite cruel because we were making him wear this ugly helmet.

"So he spent his own money on a Mongoose, full-face one.

"The consultant said that if he didn't have that helmet on, especially with the full-face protection, [it would have been worse].

"The helmet we bought him wouldn't have saved his face."

The relieved mum then took to social media to say the helmet had saved Ross' life and now hopes to get the message out to as many people as possible.

She added: "I put a post up on Facebook, just to raise a wee bit of awareness, because there are so many teenagers that refuse to wear helmets.

"In fact, his two pals did not have theirs on, so I just want more people to know. It doesn't matter if it's cool or not."

Ross admits that it could have been even worse for him in the end as he had only put his helmet on just moments before crashing.

The Alloa Academy pupil said: "Me and my pals were going over this smaller jump, and at that point we thought it was nothing too bad so I didn't really need my helmet.

"But I put my helmet back on right before I went down that hill and ended up doing that.

"The doctor said there was nothing wrong with my brain, because as soon as I done it, I woke up and asked my pal for his phone and I could remember my mum's phone number.

"I then grabbed my top and tried to stop the bleeding."

The youngster is now taking a break from sports, with the hopes of being back on his bike sometime next month.