A tapas chef, whose health rapidly deteriorated over Christmas, has finally returned home following his double lung transplant operation.

Dave Lawrence, had been the head chef at Amigos Tapas Restaurant in Chipping Sodbury High Street up until the Mexican closed in January.

it was the revealed that Dave was fighting for his life and was in need of a lung transplant.

He has spent around three months in hospital, after undergoing surgery in February.

Now though, he has returned home to be with his family (March 18), with the operation a success.

On Facebook, his partner Shamsi Kabbara posted: "Thank you all for your continued support, you have all been terrific.

"You have helped us through this ordeal and we really appreciate it.

"As you can see our lives now revolve around a new routine and it doesn’t look like we have time for anything other than that but I’m sure it will all become second nature before we know it.

"Thank you to the most important person that made this possible, our amazingly generous donor!

"I promise you, we will look after this wonderful gift and cherish every moment."

When Dave was admitted to hospital, customers and friend set a Gofundme page to support the family.

Donations from the community totalled around £7000.

The page can be found here.