Hello. This summer I fell off my bicycle and broke my skull. The break damaged a blood vessel, and I had a potentially fatal epidural haematoma; a bruise/blood clot inside the skull which puts pressure on the brain. Take a sec to look at that link; my X-Ray looked much like that Wikipedia picture – pretty frightening, eh? I am OK now, but it might so easily have been much, much worse.

First of all, thanks to my surgeon, Karoly David, who drilled, stapled and stitched me up quite nicely. Thanks to my family, friends & colleagues for their support while I recovered, and to all the other staff in Queen's Hospital, Romford too.

Last, but not least, the reason for this page; I am raising money for the helicopter service that saved my life.

If I hadn't had prompt expert surgical help, I would definitely have suffered severe brain injury, and would have quite probably died. I fell off my bike in Folkestone, and was treated in Romford. The only reason that was possible was because of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust, who flew me there. Startlingly, they receive no funding whatsoever, just charitable donations.

In their words:

Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance is one of 18 independent Air Ambulance operators in England and Wales and receives no statutory funding, relying almost entirely upon the generosity of the public to keep the service going. Every penny of the approximately £5 million we seek to raise each year to keep the life-saving helicopters in our skies every day of the year comes from individuals, groups, businesses, companies and clubs from all over Kent, Surrey & Sussex.

It is thanks to the generosity of our supporters that the Air Ambulance has flown over 16,000 missions and continues to be available to every person living, working and travelling in our counties, should they ever need it.

I'm not asking you to donate some estimation of my value to you, that would be just weird (and potentially slightly embarrassing for everyone concerned), but this helicopter did save my life. If you were thinking of getting me something for Christmas, buying me a drink or whatever; don't do that, put some money into this cause instead. I've disabled the "guilt box" on this page, so no-one need know how much or little you've put into the pot, but for heaven's sake put something in.

I've set the target for this page at one day's support for the service: £13,698.

Remember to fill out the GiftAid thing, this maximises the value of your donation.