“It was our first bike ride of the year. The bike had been away for the winter but it was a beautiful, sunny March morning and we just decided we’d take the bike to work rather than the car” Dawn explains. “We set off about 6:40” her partner Al adds, “It’s a road we used to drive every day, we were really familiar with it and the visibility was good. As a biker you know every time you ride there’s a risk, you’re constantly watching out for signs from other traffic and there’s usually something you can do - brake or swerve, but that morning there was nothing.”

A driver on the road ahead of Dawn and Al pulled out to make a U-turn and crashed straight into their motorbike. “I remember getting close to the car and realising it was going to happen. There was nothing I could do” Al says. “I felt the impact as we collided and that’s the last I remember until waking up on the other side of the road.” Dawn didn’t lose consciousness, she tells us, “I remember flying through the air, hitting the ground and tumbling.”

“It was a rural spot, the middle of nowhere really, but help arrived quickly”. Al and Dawn were taken to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough where they were treated in adjoining bays in resus, and the extent of their injuries became clear. Dawn had fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, fractured pelvis and an open fracture of her femur. And Al had an acetabular fracture (where the head of the femur is driven into the pelvis), dislocated knee and shattered tibia and fibula.

It’s been a long road to recovery - Al has had five procedures and had an external fixator for 11 months (a frame that holds broken bones in position), and Dawn had a bone graft seven months after the crash. “We were very active before. Every weekend or school holiday we would be off mountaineering, hiking, kayaking, cycling…” Al says, “to go from that to struggling to get around the house, breaking into a sweat and being in pain, it was hard to deal with. Harder than the physical injuries.”

“It was actually Day One who signposted to talking therapy and the importance of having some physiological support as well as physical, which was so good for us.” Dawn tells us, “they also explained our options around legal advice, which we might not have thought about otherwise.”

Six months after the accident our solicitor told us that Day One were looking for volunteers. We felt speaking to someone who had been through it and come out the other side would have been so beneficial for us in those early days when it all felt so dark and scary. Orthopaedics can fix your bones and physios can get you moving again but unless they’ve been through it, they don’t know what it’s like to try and sleep at night or to cope with flashbacks and dreams.”

“Before the accident, I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone with an external frame on so I thought it must be quite rare. There’s actually lots of people who have them but they tend to not go out. It can be embarrassing, awkward to manoeuvre and painful. I realised I would have quite a lot to offer someone in that position. It was after the first few calls I had with people that I realised we all had many of the same concerns and worries, and that’s where talking to someone else can really help.” Dawn adds, “it does highlight how far we’ve come but it also normalises some of the things that went through our heads.”

“The idea that we wouldn’t ever be able to get back to things like hiking and kayaking is still difficult at times” Dawn says, “But knowing that we’re so lucky to be here has helped to temper that”. “That’s what we always come back to” Al agrees, “to the fact we shouldn’t really be here.”

“A few years ago, we’d have thought nothing of doing twenty miles through the mountains of Scotland and now a two mile walk is an achievement, but it feels great and we definitely have no intention of giving up. We’re riding a bike again, with an adaption for the pedal and we will climb a mountain one day.”