Jozi-boy26,
Well, to be specific, your flight hours
per se might not be completely gone. You can
not use them towards the flight training program for PPL/CPL (in JAR-land).
However, you
might be able to use them towards general experience requirements, depending on the exact wording of the requirement.
..and I assume you
did gain valuable experience doing those hours, that will benefit you in your PPL training later. So all was not in vain..
Cheers,
Redbar1