The accident left me with fractures to my left tibia and fibula (lower leg), right femur (thigh), both pubic rami and right ilium (pelvis), a few ribs, my right radius (forearm), and my jaw. I’d ripped all the flesh off my right elbow, smashed my head so hard my inner ear had been stretched and torn (resulting in now reduced hearing), but worst of all my lungs filled up with fluid (A.R.D.S.). Quite simply I was lucky to be alive.

Multiple surgeries across two different hospitals (Princess Margaret in Swindon, and John Radcliffe in Oxford) and I eventually left hospital in a wheelchair. I spent the next 6months in a wheelchair before slowly learning to walk again. In the challenge of keeping me alive during the first rounds of surgeries, the importance of achieving perfect alignment of the fractures was not at the top of the list and I was left with shortened and rotated fractures in my legs. I was too sick to surgically fix the pelvis initially and it was 2 weeks after the accident before I was stable enough to go back and have that operation, by then the pelvis was getting stuck in a twisted and shifted position. The result being that I couldn’t ride a bike or run without destroying my hip joint. So 18months later I went back under the knife again and had the femur re-fractured and fixed again but in a better alignment, and started another 18month journey of rehab. I was told I was still unlikely to be able to run again, but see how I got on, perhaps better to accept a more sedentary life going forward.

Hydrotherapy turned into swimming a few lengths. Static exercise bike turned into buying a road bike (still got that one in the loft! can’t part with it). Eventually I was allowed to try to run. I can clearly remember the first time I ran for 30seconds on a treadmill, I cried and phoned my mum!

Still, I couldn’t run much so discovered triathlon. I learned to swim properly (thanks to Bob Hogg at Ryton Tri), ride a bike (thanks to Chris Bush and all the Gosforth RC guys), and eventually build the running back up (thanks to the Claremont Road Runners club). Over the next 6 years I gradually rebuilt myself and eventually got back to running enough to complete the London marathon to raise money for the intensive care department who saved my life. The rebuild continues, and while I still have a lot of physical issues (pelvis is a bit wonky) I am now in a position again to be racing for podiums rather than just completing events!