THE father of a man left fighting for his life after being attacked in a Darwen nightclub has launched a fundraising appeal for his care.

Mark Pennington has set a target of £25,000 to help support his son Ben, after a single punch in Level One nightclub, left him with ‘potentially life-changing’ injuries.

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The 28-year-old suffered a bleed on the brain when he was attacked and fell banging his head on the bar.

Mr Pennington said: “Ben knows something bad has happened to him. He has now moved wards and is off the ventilator. It’s devastating to see him in such a bad way and we still don’t know the full extent of his injuries.”

Following the attack on his son last week Mr Pennington, 58, of Preston, released a picture of Ben fighting for life in hospital.

According to Mr Pennington, his bodybuilder son will almost certainly need extra care and rehabilitation and his recovery is likely to be long.

Surgeons had to cut a large part of Ben’s skull away as his brain swelled following the devastating attack.

Mr Pennington said: “Ben has been stapled from ear to ear and we don’t have a clue how he will be when he comes round.

“It’s not a broken leg we’re dealing with and we don’t know how he will be. He will have to move back home and we will need to make adaptations to the house to cater for his needs.

“People have been telling us to start fundraising. We wanted to get the ball rolling because we know that, with life-changing injuries, he will need extra support.

“If he does make a miraculous recovery we will donate the money to the critical care unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital which has saved his life.”

He also said that sales manager Ben was showing small signs of improvement.

“Ben is a fan of Starbucks and he’s managed to have a few slurps of the coffee we took to him. So that’s a slight improvement.”

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/benpennington