As the East Anglian Air Ambulance becomes the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust’s chosen charity for the next two seasons, Hatters supporter Rob Taylor shares his very personal reason for knowing just how important air ambulance services can be.
If you were driving north on the M1 one Friday lunchtime in July 2004, found the motorway closed and had to come off at Junction 12 at Toddington – sorry for the chaos.
I was the reason.
In what I sometimes describe as my “second childhood”, I’d taken my motorbike out on a beautiful sunny day. Stupidly, because the weather was so good, I hadn’t worn my leathers. I was riding along the M1 when I went into the back of a car. Only its centre brake light was working and, in the bright sunshine, I simply didn’t see it come on. I hit the car and skidded across the motorway on my knees before colliding head-first with a lorry in the slow lane. Somehow – and I still don’t know how , I didn’t go underneath it.
The injuries were horrific. I’d broken my back, neck, legs and shoulder blade, and I’d stopped breathing.
That’s when the Air Ambulance came to my rescue.
East Anglian Air Ambulance was busy that day, so it was actually the Thames Valley Air Ambulance that attended. The name on the helicopter may have been different, but what mattered was that an air ambulance crew was there when I desperately needed one.
They treated me at the scene, brought me back to life and flew me to the Royal London Hospital. Without them, I have absolutely no doubt that I wouldn’t be here today.
I spent three weeks in a coma and six months in hospital. I had to learn to walk and talk again.
The road back was a very long one. It took around three years before I felt able to properly rejoin society and another ten years before I had partially recovered from everything that had happened. The accident also left me with permanent brain damage, particularly affecting my short- to medium-term memory.
There is a strange football-related side to that. I can still remember nearly everything about Wembley on 24 April 1988, when Luton Town beat Arsenal to win the Littlewoods Cup. Ask me what I had for dinner last night, though, and you may be out of luck!
That’s life for me now, and it puts into perspective just how fortunate I am to have had an air ambulance there when I needed it most. I’m massively grateful. What still amazes me is that air ambulance services rely so heavily on charitable support. The crews carry out extraordinary, lifesaving work alongside the emergency services, reaching people at the moments when every second matters.
It’s something I feel incredibly strongly about. Personally, I would love to see services such as the Air Ambulance and RNLI nationally funded, rather than having to rely so much on the generosity of the public. But while that support is needed, I know better than most what every donation can help to achieve.
More than 22 years after that Friday afternoon on the M1, I’m still here, and without an Air Ambulance, I wouldn’t be.
That’s why I’m delighted that the East Anglian Air Ambulance will be the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust’s chosen charity for the next two seasons – and why I hope my fellow Hatters will get behind them.
Rob Taylor
Luton Town supporter
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