"If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much room."
That's what my head of year said before presenting me with the first contribution from my Sixth Form towards my expedition.
As I've been harping on about for a while now, I had a pretty bad riding accident last year.
Summary:
Mounting in a car park.
Horse bolts, trips and lands on top of me.
12 broken ribs (each one snapped more than once).
Punctured right lung.
Collapsed left lung.
Broken collar bone.
Crushed sciatic nerve, affecting movement of left foot.
In a nutshell, I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating from the inside and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance saved my life. They operated on site, by inserting chest drains to rid the blood from the left lung and release the air that was filling my chest cavity and crushing the right lung. They also put me to sleep there and kept me in an induced coma until I woke up in hospital 10 days later.
It's been a long journey since then. I had to defer my place at Glasgow Vet School, and take the exams I missed a year late. But with the extra year, I started helping the charity that saved my life. Yes, charity. The Air Ambulance Service consists of the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire service, the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland service, and now the Children's Air Ambulance. They receive no help from the NHS or any government funding, so rely on charitable donations from the public to continue to provide a life-saving service.
Over the last year, I started helping in one of their charity shops and volunteering at events before becoming something of a media case study. Me and Pepsi (not the horse I fell off, but my pony, who has helped me ride again) have appeared in local newspapers, on local radio, in the national British Riding Clubs magazine and on two local TV news broadcasts. I also spoke at the Houses of Commons (understandably without Pepsi) in February.
Now, I'm aiming for something bigger. I'm planning to mush my own sled of huskies across 200km of north Sweden, braving temperatures down to -15 C to raise money for the charity. But I can't do it without your help. Please sponsor me so the Air Ambulance can continue to save lives. You never know when you might need it yourself.
www.justgiving.com/jsnowdogs or text DOGS92 £(amount) to 70070
People think I'm mental, maybe I am.
