Hi, my name’s Nic and I’m raising funds to help with medical expenses and continued treatment for my daughter, Olivia, 21, who sustained a serious brain injury in a road accident in India during a gap year.

She suffered a subdural hematoma with intusion and a 3.6mm bleed on her brain after a scooter accident in Goa on May 5 this year. I have flown out to India to look after her while she recovers. MRI scans reveal a significant injury to her left side temporal lobe which stores memories, and cerebellum, which controls, among other things, orientation, or balance. She currently has lost most of her long and short term memory. She cannot remember where she went to school or her beloved dog, Raj, who died days before Xmas last year.

State healthcare provision in India is at best scant and as a result she was discharged from the intensive care unit where she was being treated just four days after arriving because of urgent pressure on beds, despite still having a serious bleed on her brain and being unable to remember anything about her past life, let alone how to use a mobile phone or find a hotel. Luckily I got there in time and was able to get her to somewhere relatively comfortable and seek private health care. She is now in the care of a brilliant neurosurgeon at Vision Hospital, Mapusa, but she cannot fly back to the UK until her injuries have improved as aeroplane cabin pressure poses a high risk to this kind of brain injury. So for now, we must wait until the doctors give her the all-clear to travel home. She is resting well and improving very slowly, but it will take time, up to a year, perhaps longer, for her memory to return to anything like it was.

She will need full-time care during the months ahead, which i will give her, as well as regular treatment at a brain injury unit back home.

As a consequence, I will potentially have to put my job on hold, or at least significantly reduce my hours, creating a large reduction in my income.

i am therefore appealing for funds to help pay for my expenses so far, namely flights to India for myself and my youngest daughter, hotel accommodation for the three of us while Olivia convalesces, private medical bills, and funding to cover our return flights and income needs for the foreseeable future.