Ross Deacon

We’re asking for donations for Ross Deacon.

Ross is a keen amateur athlete, someone who trains hard and tries to maximize his performance in any way he can, he loves to keeps himself active. Whatever he does he gives it 100%. He started running some years back and devoted much of his spare time to improving himself before adding road cycling as one of his regular weekly activities. He was previously a member of Gade Valley Harriers running club and is a current member of Hemel Hempstead Cycle Club.

Ross was seriously injured whilst taking part in the Fred Whitton Challenge on 8th May 2022 after being involved in a crash. The Fred Whitton Challenge is a 112 miles cycle ride around the Lake District, taking in some of the biggest climbs in the region, it's described as the toughest one day ride in the UK. It was Ross’s “bucket list” ride that he had been planning to do since he started cycling and he finally managed to get a place in 2020 but this was delayed due to the pandemic.

On the day of the event, at about 60 miles in Ross was involved in an incident with a bus.   He was pinned under the front bumper of the bus for around 10 minutes, all the while begging the first on scene to "Get if off me" and he remained on the road for about an hour before the ambulance arrived, he was conscious and in excruciation pain throughout.  After examination the paramedics inserted a chest drain due to internal bleeding in his chest cavity making it difficult for him to breathe.

Soon after he was airlifted to hospital in Preston where he underwent a CT scan and X-rays to determine the full extent of his injuries.

In total he had 16 broken bones, 7 of which were ribs and due to the crushing injury caused by the bus his chest was left visibly smaller on his left hand side. Some of these ribs were broken 2 or 3 times and he underwent emergency surgery to reconstruct his rib cage by installing flexible metal plates. Some days later Ross had a second operation to put a plate on his badly broken and misaligned collar bone. He also suffered 5 broken vertebrae in the middle of his spine and is told he is lucky to be walking. His wrist, hand, shoulder socket, shoulder blade were also broken and he had a punctured lung. He also has extremely painful Road Rash abrasions across large areas of his back which need frequent dressing changes. He remained in Critical Care for 4 days before being transferred to the Major Trauma ward and he stayed there for a further 6 days. In total he was in hospital for 24 days. He spent a large portion of this time unable to feed, wash or dress himself.

Unsurprisingly Ross has been dealing with flashbacks and may have to be treated for PTSD. One of the Major Trauma nurses suggested that he wrote about his memory of the accident to try to help in dealing with it, this is what he wrote.

"When I went over the handle bars and landed flat on my back on the tarmac I looked to my left and I saw the bus coming so I lifted my right arm and braced my palm against the bumper of the bus in an attempt to stop myself going under, I wonder if this actually saved my life that day. I remember saying out loud "Oh no" as it pushed me along the road, then suddenly I wasn't there anymore, I was in a different place, in a different situation and I remember that I felt safe. I can't remember anything about it, where I was or who I was with but I know it's there somewhere in my head."

"I came back to reality, half trapped under the bumper with Katie holding my hand, she was shouting my name at me. I then realised that what i was seeing and hearing was real and the horror of my situation hit me."

"I assume my subconscious was convinced I wasn't going to make it and it was protecting me from the horror of being run over, I guess some people would say my life flashed before my eyes but I think that's inaccurate so I'm calling it a near death experience."

Ross has very little use of his left arm currently and his right is only just starting to improve, he needs help with most day to day tasks that you or I take for granted. It’s going to be a very long and painful recovery for him with a lot of physio ahead during which he obviously can’t work and won’t have any real income.

His bike appears to be in one piece but being carbon fibre who knows what damage there is, it'll need a proper inspection to decide if it's safe to use in the future or if it's just now a scrap frame and parts. All of his cycling wear was destroyed either by the road or by being cut off his body at the scene, some of it was brand new for the event.

But Ross is a fighter, he is determined to not only be back riding his bike as soon as he can but he plans to enter the Fred Whitton Challenge again this time to raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance Service who did such a brilliant job on the day. He says "I owe them one"

Any support you can give, no matter how small, would really be appreciated to aid his recovery period and his return to cycling and get him back on the start line of the Fred Whitton Challenge.

Thank you.