Category Images On Homepage - php

Question

I am using the code below which pulls in all of my SUB-categories from my main product category on to the homepage.
I need to somehow be able to pull in the category images of the subcategories as well under the getName function. I have tried a few methods mentioned before but none of them have worked.
i am using 1.7.0 if that helps.
<?php $_helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category') ?>
<?php $_categories = $_helper->getStoreCategories() ?>
<?php $currentCategory = Mage::registry('current_category') ?>
<?php if (count($_categories) > 0): ?>
<ul>
<?php foreach($_categories as $_category): ?>
<li>
<?php $_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_category->getId()); ?>
<?php $_subcategories = $_category->getChildrenCategories() ?>
<?php if (count($_subcategories) > 0): ?>
<ul>
<?php foreach($_subcategories as $_subcategory): ?>
<li class="item">
<a href="<?php echo $_helper->getCategoryUrl($_subcategory) ?>">
<?php echo $_subcategory->getName() ?>
</a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>

Answer 1

Managed to achieve it by changing the code to below
<?php
//gets all sub categories of parent category 'Brands'
$cats = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load(27)->getChildren();
$catIds = explode(',',$cats);
$categories = array();
foreach($catIds as $catId) {
$category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($catId);
$categories[$category->getName()] = array(
'url' => $category->getUrl(),
'img' => $category->getImageUrl()
);
}
ksort($categories, SORT_STRING);
?>
<?php foreach($categories as $name => $data): ?>
<li class="item">
<a href="<?php echo $data['url']; ?>" title="<?php echo $name; ?>">
<div style="font:12px/15px Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom:10px;"><?php echo $name; ?></div>
<img class="cat-image" src="<?php echo $data['img']; ?>" />
</a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Answer 2

you need to write something like this under getName function
<img src="<?php echo $_subcategory->getImageUrl()">