In May 2022, I was out cycling - the usual route and a normal training ride - when I had a catastrophic accident, colliding with the back of a van at about thirty miles per hour.

About two weeks before we’d been on a family holiday and that was the last thing I remember. I can’t recall coming home or anything from the two weeks before the crash. The first thing I remember is waking up in intensive care eight weeks later, unable to move or talk. That moment was just terrifying, it’s something I struggled with for a long time.

It was touch and go in that time, my family were told that my injuries could be fatal. I had two punctured lungs, broken ribs, shoulder and collar bone, injuries to internal organs, and the most life threatening - a torn aorta - the main blood vessel that leads away from the heart.

When I woke up, I couldn’t move because of the rib fractures, couldn’t eat or drink, or speak to ask questions. I didn’t know if I was going to survive, how long I’d be in hospital or if I’d ever recover. But slowly I did start to improve; I was able to come off the tracheostomy, then out of ICU onto the major trauma ward, then into rehabilitation and then finally I could go home.

At every stage it felt like I’d never get through it, but week by week I got a little stronger. I was fit and active before the accident but I lost so much muscle mass, I couldn’t open a car door or press on an aerosol at the start. Once I was home I put my all into getting mobile again, and thankfully it wasn’t too long before I was walking.

The mental challenge was just as big as the physical really. In the night, I’d have flashbacks of waking up in the hospital and was diagnosed with PTSD. When I went back to work seven months after the accident, I couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, the accident was just constantly there in my mind.

I didn’t know about Day One then, so I stumbled through on my own and eventually found a few things that really helped. I was able to have EMDR tapping therapy which changed everything for me and really helped me put those traumatic memories in the past.

It was only this year when I first heard about Day One, and all of the support that people like me can access. Back when I was in those early stages of recovering, and questioning everything, I would have found it helpful to speak to someone who had been on a similar journey and come out the other side. Speaking to someone whose life has gone back to normal would just have given me hope, something to hang on to.

I felt like volunteering for Day One was something I could do to help other people. I felt like I’d learned so many things and I wanted to be able to share them to make other people’s journey that bit easier. I think it would have also helped my family to be able to have more support too, which Day One can provide. They go through such huge trauma and it really takes a toll. My wife and parents went through moments thinking I was going to die. I can’t imagine trying to cope with that, whilst staying positive for the kids.

The last two years have been the toughest I’ve been through, but it’s changed my perspective on life. I’ve learned to appreciate all the little things that I couldn’t do when I was in that hospital bed and it makes you realise just how precious life is.