“Riding my motorbike was a big part of my life. It was May 2018 and I was heading to meet friends. As I rode around a bend I was faced with a van in my lane, overtaking a truck at about 50mph. We were going to hit head on so I tried to get in between the van and the truck.

“The impact to the left side of my body was catastrophic. I flew off the bike and travelled about a hundred yards. I didn’t black out, the amount your brain remembers is unreal. Lying on the verge, the birdsong, tractors in the field, how frantic everyone sounded. My injuries were so severe and because of where it happened in Cumbria, there wasn’t anywhere that could deal with that kind of trauma, so I was flown to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle by the Great North Air Ambulance.

“I owe my life to the air ambulance. A paramedic later told me that they threw everything they had on board at me, they used up all the blood and plasma to try and save me. A few minutes before getting to the RVI I stopped breathing and the surgeon said if it had been 30 seconds later, they would never have got me back. I had a fractured tibia, smashed knee, femur, and hip, and irreparable damage to my arm. I remember them telling me they were going to have to amputate my left arm and leg. I was pleading with them not to but I was getting sepsis in my arm, it was killing me. When I woke up from the surgery, I realised my arm had been amputated just below the shoulder but somehow they managed to save my leg. That was the start of a very long recovery, one I’m still on now.

“Six years on, I started volunteering with Day One. I can’t put into words the feelings I had when I was in hospital. I’d never felt vulnerable before the crash. Nothing would really frighten me, I’d just get on with things but when your fight or flight instinct is taken away from you like that, it’s debilitating. You start having really dark thoughts and it’s a sickening feeling of slipping down further and further. I promised myself as soon as I was in a better place, I would do anything I could to make sure other people didn’t feel like that.

“You can be surrounded by doctors and nurses - you might see 100 people a day - but it doesn’t make a difference because in your mind, you’re the only one going through what you’re going through. Having someone there who had been through it would have made a big difference.

“I’ve helped quite a few people in the years after the crash and now work with Day One as a Peer Support Volunteer. One of the main things people worry about is how other people will see them. If you think about how much people worry about the appearance of a scar or even a spot, let alone injuries as severe as we have. Some people do find it hard to speak about things that worry them, I was like that too when I was younger, but I realise now it’s a way of not bottling things up. Even now it helps me as well as helping them. You can hear the difference in people’s voices and I’ve watched people get their smile back, which makes it all worthwhile for me.

“The crash was life changing for me. I know I’ve still got a long way to go in my recovery but I’m grateful to be here and I won’t be beaten by it."