Walking a marathon on my accident anniversary to raise money for the Helicopter Trusts that rescued me from the slopes

16 September 2026 marks one year since I had a serious accident on the slopes at Lake Ōhau in New Zealand. I was airlifted from there to a hospital in Timaru, before eventually being transferred to Christchurch for surgery. I was incredibly lucky to be picked up by the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Service- with paramedics Ben and Pierre, and pilot Ben. There was also a Ben in the blood wagon team that somehow got me down the mountain!

The reason for the 2 charities is that the service is partly funded by the Crown & community support which comes from these two trusts: the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust and the Lakes District Air Rescue Trust. Me and my family are incredibly grateful to these incredible trusts who took such amazing care of me and who asked for nothing in return.

To mark a year since my accident, I will be walking a marathon from St George’s Hospital (where I continue to receive treatment in the UK) and finishing at the New Zealand High Commission, where I hope to deliver a thank you letter to the incredible people who looked after me for 6+ weeks. I also owe Lake Ōhau an apology, as my accident meant they had to shut the resort on the final day of the season cutting short the Wanaka seasonnaire party…

I appreciate that in 2025 I walked 100km in under 22h, so you may be unsure why I’m not doing a further distance. Simply, I am very much still recovering (I have some broken bone left too!). However, this will be an even harder challenge than that!