Tom Staniford: 20 years on

In 2005 a cycling accident left 17-year-old, Tom Staniford, with similar injuries to those suffered by Ceri 21 years earlier. Luckily, thanks to Devon Air Ambulance now in full service, Tom was swiftly airlifted to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. Despite arresting twice in the aircraft, he went on to make a full recovery. Looking back to that fateful day 20 years ago, Tom said:

On 1st June 2005 I was out cycling with a friend on the back roads of Devon. A car came round a corner far too fast and on the narrow roads there was nowhere to go except through the windscreen. The rural location made regular land ambulance access difficult, and so the air ambulance was called.

‘This proved to be fortunate, because I went into cardiac arrest twice en route to hospital, and certainly wouldn’t have survived a road ambulance journey; I had a brain haemorrhage, fractured eye socket, broken teeth, collapsed lung, 4 broken ribs, broken collar bone, broken wrist and toes, and both knees were completely sliced apart down to the bone’

After many months of recovery, Tom was finally able to get back on a bike starting with a turbo trainer in his garage due to his stitches, swelling and pain, and this is where he decided that we wanted to raise money for the air ambulance that saved his life.

‘I wanted to raise some money for DAA to thank them for saving my life, but there weren’t any suitable events nearby, so my dad and I just decided to set up our own challenge of riding 100km on a specific day. We set about building up my health and endurance over the following months and were fortunate to raise somewhere over £1,000 in sponsorship and even more fortunate that Eamon Holmes saw the campaign and donated a further £5,000 to the DAA.

‘It was a small campaign, but it struck a chord with many people due to the similarities between my own accident and that of Ceri Thomas – we were both young male cyclists on Devon roads. The only difference being that because of that accident and his mother Ann’s campaigning, this time round there was an air ambulance – and I was saved. Almost proving, in a nutshell, the critical value of the air ambulance service.’

Now, two decades after his incident and initial fundraising, Tom is once again raising money for us (as well as 3 other charities that are important to him).

Tom has remained a keen cyclist and is a marketing consultant who often speaks and lectures on marketing, law, psychology, diversity equality and inclusion. He is also one of about only 16 people worldwide to be born with MDP Syndrome.

This rare and spontaneous genetic mutation means that Tom is unable to maintain fat below his skin’s surface, but his body reacts as if it is obese and as a result, he has Type 2 diabetes, and his hearing has been deteriorating since he was as young as 10 years old.

This year, Tom is having a double amputation of his legs due to his MDP Syndrome and has organised a fundraising cycle ahead of the procedure in which he’s challenged himself further with a £10,000 fundraising target. He explained:

I’m having a voluntary double amputation of my legs to improve my quality of life and mitigate a rapidly increasing infection risk. I used my legs so rigorously and for so long with competitive cycling and cycling as a leisure activity means so much to my physical and mental health, so I wanted to give them a good send-off. It seemed like once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try and do some good, too. To thank those charities who have helped me get to this point. Without the air ambulance, and cycling for my health, and reading for education and relief, I probably wouldn’t be here.