Help Luke to live again

In September 2019, a week after completing the Great North Run for charity, Luke - a happy, healthy, fit 25 year-old with a masters in Sports Psychology and a PhD underway - collapsed while on holiday in America. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was immediately diagnosed with acute liver failure. Luke was then airlifted to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, a specialist liver transplant centre.  

Thanks to the incredible efforts of the medical teams there Luke was put straight into an induced coma and his life was saved with an emergency liver transplant. In the hours it took to find and implant the new liver, the rest of his body suffered acute trauma causing other major organs to start shutting down and suffer as a result of his own liver poisoning his body. He had massive brain swelling, kidney failure, and his heart was slowing down.   

He was kept alive in an induced coma in ICU for two weeks and then fell in and out of consciousness for another five weeks, during which time he had numerous  surgeries on both legs as a result of muscle compartment syndrome. He was also being treated with kidney dialysis and treatment for his brain swelling and pneumonia.  

Unable to move, communicate or swallow, it was impossible for doctors to understand why this had happened to Luke and what the prognosis would be. Despite Doctors running numerous tests the cause remains unknown.  

Luke was airlifted back to St. James Hospital in Leeds at the beginning of November and has been receiving amazing care in ICU ever since. Doctors are still uncertain as to the final prognosis but are all in agreement that his recovery and rehabilitation will be a very slow and difficult journey. 

Thanks to the huge support of the brilliant doctors, nurses and specialists there Luke is building up the muscle strength in his arms and neck again, is able to nod yes and shake no and will soon be off the ventilator (he was off it for 11 days but suffered a collapsed lung and had to be re-ventilated). Small but significant steps that show us that Luke is in there still fighting and desperate to make himself heard. 

We are under no illusions. It will be a long road and Luke will need to learn how to live all over again. To move, to walk, to speak, to think, to laugh and all those other things that once came so easily and naturally to this gorgeous, kind, funny, clever young man.

Luke's lust for life and passion for sport, both academically and physically (he was a frequent gym-goer and played Sunday league football for Brompton FC) were both inspiring and infectious. We want to be ready, when he is, to give him the best possible chance of living a normal life again. That will involve being able to give him the best ongoing specialist care, from physiotherapists to speech therapists and psychologists, and Neurological rehabilitation facilities,  as well as the best equipment and apparatus to help him become mobile and communicate.  His PhD, currently co-funded by the English Cricket Board, has already been widely acknowledged and we would love to be able to keep this funding going so that he has a chance to complete it in the future.

Anything you can give towards helping Luke to live a full and happy life again will be so appreciated and we thank you from the very bottom of our hearts.