Nick

Good day all!

By all means skip straight to the donation page if you know my story! But if you don’t I’d like to explain what happened and why it would mean the world to me raising much needed funds for the charity “Headway”.

In March 2013 on a very blustery day, a rotten telegraph pole blew over as I walked past, smashing my skull to pieces leaving me for dead on the pavement.

Despite this gross piece of misfortune, I was lucky in that an off-duty fireman and a pedestrian walking past kept me alive until the ambulance arrived. Also I was near St Georges hospital which had a world renowned team of Neurosurgeons led by Henry Marsh CBE. They removed a third of my skull to allow the severe brain swelling to subside while placing me in a deep induced coma for a few weeks. My friends and family were told I was highly unlikely to survive that first night and even if I did I could be a drastically different personality.

I survived (several operations, a heavy bout of pole dust related pneumonia and rehab later) and it makes me very happily cry writing this as after waking up I remember seeing my then girlfriend Laura who I had only been going out with for a few months. She was told many times there was a high chance I’d be a very different person but she was right by my side for the entire thing. As you can see in the pictures attached, we are now very happily married and have a 2 year old daughter called Allegra who simply wouldn’t be here without all the help that came my way.

I decided it was time to give something back which is why I am running in the London Marathon this year. If we fast forward nearly 10 years, I’m now very happy and healthy and I’d dearly love to help Headway as much as I possibly can! Headway is a charity which helps people with traumatic brain injuries once they leave hospital. They are so instrumental in helping and supporting people like me get back to their former selves through rigorous rehab programs. They also help to support their families.

I really plead to everyone reading this to give what you can to Headway, they make such a huge difference to so many people and need continued financial support.

I’m also running with 2 others. One is Nav who is a current Neurosurgeon at St Georges and Kieren who is a school & university friend.

Nav

Hello everyone. Even though I’m still grumbling that Nick twisted my arm to run 26.2 miles, the cause is wholly worthwhile (and he didn’t really need to twist that hard). Head injuries are the commonest cause of death and disability in people under 40 in the UK and, as a neurosurgeon, I see first-hand the devastation they can cause. Organisations like Headway are so vital to improving the lives of victims of head injuries and their families.

Although I work in the department that treated Nick (and know his surgeons well), I didn’t work there at the time, and it was complete coincidence that Nick and I (and our respective wives) met in the autumn of 2019 at our local NCT antenatal class. We’ve grown to be become good mates, sharing our love of beer, sport and toddlers (and are now running buddies). Listening to his story and having a medical understanding of how serious his injury was, it’s little short of a miracle to see him where he is now. It makes me quite proud to see what modern healthcare can achieve, but there’s still so much more to do. With better research and continually improving treatments and rehabilitation services, I hope we reach a point where these amazing stories are the norm. This is only possible with your generosity and the work of charities like Headway.

Kieren

Thanks for making it down this far...

So, I'm one of Nicks old school friends. A couple of years prior to Nicks accident, I was clocking in close to 100kg. If you want a life wake up call, a random telegraph pole falling on one of your best mates' heads, is certainly it. I got into shape and ran the Marathon des Sables with a group of Caterham boys (Elliott Grant, Ben Prior and Andrew Prickett) - in doing so, we raised over £65k for St Georges Hospital.

I continued to run ultra-marathons for several years after - before hanging up my running shoes in 2018. Three years later, Nick asked if I was interested in running the London Marathon with him, so here I am again. Losing weight and getting back into shape - albeit nearly 10 years later and this time married with a 1-year-old.

My affiliation with head-injury charities is also very personal, as when I was just 2.5 years old, I fell off a 15-foot balcony onto a concrete floor, headfirst. Due to the remarkable advances that hospitals (I was treated by the Atkinson Morely Hospital, which later became the Atkinson Morely Wing in Tooting, who treated Nick) have made and charities like Headway support, I also survived. It's a sobering thought now I've got a little one of my own and I relish the opportunity to generate some much-needed funds for a charity that could make such a HUGE impact to an individual (and surrounding friends/families) life.

Thanks for taking the time to read and look forward to updating you with our journey.