A man completely paralysed from the waist down after his spinal cord was sliced in half in a stabbing is able to walk again after undergoing pioneering surgery.

Darek Fidyka, who suffered the injury in 2010, is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves.

The 40-year-old Pole can now walk with a frame and has been able to resume an independent life, even to the extent of driving a car. Sensation has returned to his lower limbs.

Surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from Mr Fidykas nose to provide pathways along which the broken tissue was able to grow.

Despite laboratory success, it is the first time the procedure has worked in a human patient.

Geoffrey Raisman, whose team at University College Londons Institute of Neurology discovered the technique, said: We believe that this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury.

The research, funded by the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation and the UK Stem Cell Foundation, will be featured in a special Panorama programme on BBC One tonight.

A Polish team led by one of the worlds top spinal repair experts, Pawel Tabakow, from Wroclaw Medical University, performed the surgery.

The procedure involved transplanting olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from the nose to the spinal cord.

OECs assist the repair of damaged nerves that transmit smell messages by opening up pathways for them to the olfactory bulbs in the forebrain.

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Severed spinal cord regrown with nose cells