Semi-paralysed stroke patients learning to walk again have used a computer games console to help them back onto their feet.

They have tackled tennis, bowling and boxing using a Nintendo Wii at Birmingham’s City Hospital where physiotherapists say energetic games, more often favoured by teenagers, can help patients stretch and move and regain balance.

Physiotherapist Lydia Jones, aged 24, of Wednesbury, said: “The patients have all been loving it. It has really help people learn to balance and because they can see their scores, they watch them get better after every session. It’s a real motivator and it is also a lot of fun.

Because we are a rehabilitation ward a lot of a patients have already been in hospital for a couple of months before they get down to us. The Wii helps them alleviate their boredom and have some fun.”

At the moment there is only one Wii on the ward but the staff are recording results to assess effectiveness If it is successful it may be rolled out to other hospitals.

Former builder Alan Perkins, of Yardley Close, Oldbury, used the Wii after a severe stroke in January. He is now walking around and saving up to buy his own Wii to share with his grandson Casey, aged four.

Alan, 58, said: “I started out bowling and playing tennis, then I was boxing. It was brilliant and because I’m competitive really pushed myself. I was using both hands. I wasn’t holding on to the rails anymore.”