"In my business, working late was par for the course. One evening, alone in the plant, I went to answer a phone, tripped over a cable and fell into a working industrial cement mixer.

By complete fluke, a wagon driver came on the scene and stopped the machine. By which time my left arm had been severed, as had my left leg beneath my knee. Mr right arm was also damaged.

When the paramedics arrived, it took them over an hour to extricate me from the mixer. Helicopters brought me and Professor Gus McGrouther together at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester. I was in extreme shock, of course, I'd lost a great deal of blood. 20 hours of surgery put me back in the land of the living.

When I woke, I couldn't believe I was still alive. The long haul has been the rehab. I can't convey the immense sense of gratitude I feel towards the people who've helped me: my family in particular, but also to the Prof, with whom I have a very special bond.

With the help of a prosthesis and a working thumb fashioned from the toe of the leg I lost, I've been given a quality of life one would think impossible immediately after the accident. Just one year later, I can walk, I can get about, drive...I know it might sound absurd but, because of what happened, I had to cancel a family skiing trip we were really looking forward to.

Thanks to the Prof and the people that have helped me, I just know I'll be on those slopes this Autumn."