"I left work at 4:30 pm and was heading home on my motorbike. My friends and I were due to go to a Kasabian concert that night in Bridlington. It was busy, and I could see traffic backed up from a roundabout as I drove down the industrial estate.

"The next thing I remember is waking up in Hull Royal Infirmary a week later. I don’t remember the crash itself, but I know now that as I was passing the traffic on the way to the roundabout, a car pulled out suddenly to access a slip road and crashed into me. I was thrown from the bike, which ended up in someone’s garden in three pieces. I lost so much blood. Years later, I met the paramedic who treated me at the scene, and she said it was the worst thing she’d ever seen.

"The air ambulance flew me to the hospital, and I went straight into surgery before being put into an induced coma for a week. The injuries were massive—I’d never broken a bone before the accident, but when I woke up, they told me I’d broken ribs, vertebrae, femur, shoulder, collarbone, thumb, and nose, and had countless scrapes.

"Being in the hospital like that was frightening, I couldn’t move for weeks. Every day someone would come and tickle my toes, but I couldn’t feel anything. After nearly a month and infection after infection, the doctors weren’t able to save my leg, and it was amputated below the knee.

"I moved back in with my Dad and couldn’t do anything for myself, it was so tough for all of us. It was about 12 months before I could start wearing a prosthetic. My first one was a big, bulky thing that didn’t fit properly, but I didn’t let it stop me. I was determined not just to be walking again but to get back to the sports I loved, like snowboarding and surfing."

"Getting back to work was a real focus for me, and it was a big day when that happened 18 months later. But soon after, I had a bit of a realisation. It sounds cliché, but I felt like I’d got a second chance. I knew there was so much more I wanted to experience. It totally shifted my perspective, and shortly after that, I went travelling, where I met my wife Amber. Since then, I’ve been to over 30 countries, learned to scuba dive, learned to fly a helicopter, and have been training with the GB Development Team for snowboarding.

"My family would have done anything for me but they didn’t there was organisations that could have helped. Having not had that support, I know how much of a difference it would have made.

"For about eight years, I didn’t speak to another amputee. I didn’t think I needed to. I’ve always had the mentality growing up, that you just push through it but when I eventually met some other amputees, it really opened up my eyes as to how much it could have helped me. So when I learned about the peer support that Day One offers, I wanted to be involved. I started speaking to patients on the phone who have been through similar traumas, and now I volunteer on the wards at Leeds General Infirmary. I’ve noticed people’s faces light up when they realise I’m an amputee because I’ve walked in normally, with a smile on my face and I look healthy.

"Volunteering has helped me too - I never really spoke about it but I did struggle mentally as well as physically. Even eleven years on, speaking to others in the same boat has made me feel less alone. If I’d met someone like me back when I was in the hospital, I really think it could have shaved five years off my journey to where I am now.

"Through Day One, I met Henry, an amputee of a similar age who was injured in a similar crash. Together, we’re taking on the West Highland Way, a 96-mile challenge from Glasgow to Fort William. It’s going to be tough terrain, and a real challenge as we’ll be carrying all our gear and wild camping on the route. We’re doing it to show how you can overcome adversity and to raise money for the charity that means so much to us."