Helping Henry

On the afternoon of October 24th 2017 Henry Ford was cycling home to Fareham as he would do every evening. On his way down Northern Parade he was knocked from his bike by a skip lorry and pinned under the wheels for nearly hour. Henry was air lifted to Southampton General by the air ambulance and placed in an induced coma for 3 days. Both Henry’s legs sustained severe injuries as did both ankles after being dragged by the lorry for approximately 5 metres. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the injuries to his right leg it was amputated, he had extensive reconstruction and skin grafts to his left leg and his left ankle was crushed and needed major reconstruction (2x plates & 10 screws).

Henry was conscious during the whole ordeal and also was close to death several times due to blood loss and trauma. Henry spent 7 weeks in total in hospital (Southampton & Salisbury), during this time he flat lined twice, had in excess of 29 blood transfusions and over 10 operations.

Several months on Henry is now on the slow road to recovery, this experience has changed his and his family’s lives beyond recognition. Through weeks of surgery and physiotherapy Henry is now able to walk on a training prosthesis with the aid of walking sticks and is due to receive his own prosthetic leg around May. His ultimate aim is to get back on his bike and back to competing in the velodrome (his days of riding and competing on the road are over).

To give Henry and his family greater freedom, 2 friends, Duncan Macpherson, Shaun Elphick and I have set ourselves a challenge to raise funds for a lightweight wheelchair. The challenge is to cycle twice around the Isle of Wight in one day, a total of 132 miles and 9000ft of climbing. We aim to complete the challenge one day in June weather dependant, so please help us raise some funds for a friend to get his life back on track.