ABOUT:

Firstly, thank you for your donations. All funds received, whether from your generosity or buying my story, have been donated to a charity that will undoubtedly save a life. It is a cause I feel very passionate about, as I wouldn’t be here without the incredible work that the NHS does. The charity is a continuation of my previous fundraising efforts.

MY STORY:

In the summer of 2007, 29th July. I was in a life-threatening car accident, leading to a serious head injury. I had only just passed my test 2 weeks ago. That summer felt like it was going to be the best ever. I had a holiday booked, festivals to attend, and I was seeing a girl too. Little did I know, at 5.35 pm on the 29th of July, my whole life changed. As I was pulling out of a junction, a 4x4 range rover sport hit me side on. My car was crushed and smashed on the other side of the road. I had blood coming out of my ears, my nose, and my mouth. It was described as something out of a horror scene.

It is said that your body has an average of 10 pints of blood. I lost 6 of those pints at the scene of the accident. You can imagine how critical I was. Luckily, the accident happened next to a fire station where they heard the accident and could cut me out of the car to resuscitate me. From the scene, they sent me to the Leeds neuro Intensive care unit ward, and it was here I was put into an induced coma for 4 weeks. Fighting for my life.

Whilst in the hospital, my dad wrote a diary day by day about what had happened. Here is a paragraph from his diary –

I then posed the question: “Is this a matter of life and death?” The sister replied instantaneously: “Yes”. We were then asked if we would like to see Robert, so Julie and I went. I was not at all prepared for the scene. There were several people around Robert’s bed, with tubes and monitors connected to him. The son that I had been with in the afternoon was lying in front of me: there was blood coming from his nose and ears; he looked terrible, and I could not see how he could survive. I broke down and wept.

When he was placed onto another bed, Julie and I looked at the pool of blood that remained and looked at each other, knowing that it was part of Robert.

My injuries were so severe that doctors and nurses had lost hope that I would survive. Or at least if I survived, I wouldn’t be the same person. I would be in a wheelchair, have severe brain damage, have a complete personality change, and be in a vegetative state.

When you see people on television in a drama program in intensive care, I can confidently say it’s not well represented. It is far worse.

I had multiple organ failures: collapsed lungs, a fractured skull, dislocated arm, a broken pelvis, fractured ribs, and bleeding in the brain. I had the maximum amount of oxygen and drugs that they could give whilst constantly having blood transfusions. A tube went down my throat while I was on a ventilator. I had a line in my neck (Jugular), where 3 tubes were entering where most of the drugs would be given, a monitor into my brain, two electrodes on my skull to measure brain activity, and one on my chest for my heart. There was also a feed tube down my throat, two drains going into each lung for blood transfusions, and packs up my nose with a drain tube to stop bleeding. There was also a line into my hand for taking blood samples and a catheter for my urine, and finally, a monitor was inserted in my neck that went into my heart.

It was a constant rollercoaster for my family, and something I don’t wish upon anyone. There were tough decisions that had to be made including brain surgery and if the machines should be turned off. But my family never lost hope and therefore this didn’t happen. Eventually, the bleeding stopped, reducing swelling in my brain, and I gradually came out of the coma, where my long journey of recovery began. The teams at the Neuro ICU at LGI were fantastic! Without the teams, and without everyone here today, who donates blood, I wouldn’t be alive.

Since being discharged from the hospital on September 17th, 2007, I have had a very long but successful recovery. Including operations to block off one of my main carotid arteries in my head. The carotid artery is one of four main veins that help pump blood from your heart to your head. Which, in my case, had a hole caused by the impact of the crash, causing pressure and blood to drip into my head. This made my right eye push forwards and fill up with blood. My head was a ticking time bomb, therefore an urgent, very rare, and complicated operation was performed on me called an embolization. The doctors placed coiling of 14 meters of platinum in the carotid artery up through my groin into my head to stop any further blood leaking, reducing the pressure and shutting off the artery. I now have 3 carotid arteries instead of 4.

Following my recovery, I’ve had to learn to walk, swallow and regain my speech to get me back to normality. This has been a massive challenge and has given me a completely different outlook on life.

Any donations either big or small will be much appreciated as every little really does help. The team and Leeds General infirmary ward 6, Neuro Intensive Care unit really do deserve it.

Thank you

Rob Duckworth

PREVIOUS CHALLENGES:

- £2,721 TOTAL RAISED

- John O'Groats - Lands End challenge

- Virtual Everest Challenge

In recent years I have become more enthusiastic about raising further funds. I have done a number of challenges for my own personal enjoyment where I thought it was time to use all of my abilities to raise even further funds for the NHS, in particularly Leeds teaching hospitals. I looked at this as a continuation of my previous fundraising efforts.

My first challenge began on the 7th of October 2012. I thought it was about time I raise money where me and a friend of mine had set a challenge of cycling from John O'Groats in Scotland down to Lands End in Cornwall in September 2013. We completed the ride in 10 days, covering 1004 miles and both raising well over £1000.

My second challenge was to cycle the height of Everest in one continuous ride up and down the same hill on the 17th April. Due to the government stating that we have to stay indoors whenever possible, this was done on my indoor trainer. I was using my smart trainer where this can was linked up to a programme called Zwift. I rode up Alpe d'huez which simulated and replicated the exact gradient. It was not only a physically challenge but also mentally and meant ascending and descending 8 1/2 times in one session to reach 8,848m / 29,029 ft which will be around 12+ hours.