Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

I’m a keen biker and have ridden for years. Four years ago I decided to give off-roading a go and took up green laning (riding the byways and lanes). I also decided that I’d do a few competitions to build up my skill. 

Well, on the 30th September 2012 I was out with two friends having a nice early morning ride in preparation for our next race scheduled in two weeks’.  

We had started on the Ridgeway, as this was the last day we could ride it before it closed to motor vehicles for the winter, before taking a detour off some more difficult lanes heading out towards Lambourne. To be honest, I don’t recall the name of the lane, or really what happened next, but I do remember the pain as I laid there slightly under the bike with my right leg hurting rather a lot. I dragged myself away already knowing that something was broken. My two friends soon realized that I was badly hurt and called for an ambulance. 

We always carry GPS equipment and plan our routes thoroughly however the emergency services were unable to pinpoint our location.   It was about an hour before any emergency services got to me, but when they did everything started happening. The first paramedic on the scene (who got a lift on the back of another bike due to the ambulance not being able to get to us) realized that my injuries were serious enough to warrant an air ambulance. The team arrived and everything stepped into place, I remember clothing being cut and drugs administered, I had to be lifted over a barbed wire fence. I’m a big lad, so that must have been tough. 

I sort of remember being put into the helicopter too, but could not tell by who or how. I remember landing in Reading, and some smiling faces, but the drugs were working and I was away in a better and more comfortable place by this time! 

I was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and remained in hospital for 15 days.  I had fractured my tibia and fibula and shattered the lower part of my leg bones (snapped about an inch of the tibia clean off and had a spiral fracture up the fibula).  I had also cracked my ankle joint which was not found until they operated 12 days following the accident.  Unfortunately, the swelling was so bad they could not operate until it had gone down a bit.  

So two years after the accident, four operations and 18 months of physio and I’m back on my motorbikes and aim to start racing again next year.

If it was not for the air ambulance I would have lost my foot.  

I owe the team a debt of gratitude, the professionalism of the team was outstanding and to think they are only supported by charitable donations was a shock.

So now I am giving something back to them!

Thank you all for what you have done and for what you will do for others in the future. 

Paul Forrester