FRIENDS of Ben Wernham will embark on a 54-mile run to celebrate his return home, nearly a year after a freak accident in Cyprus left him paralysed from his neck down.

Jonny Barratt and Matt Kilyon from Nailsworth will run from Salisbury Spinal Unit to Avening, rounding off a huge fundraising effort to make Ben’s home accessible.

Jonny said; “There has been an overwhelming fundraising effort locally, with donations now totalling £100,000.

“Thanks to this generosity we started 2017 on a high, beginning building work on Ben’s home to make it fully accessible.

“When Ben does come home, it will not be the end of his journey, but the start of a new chapter for him and his family.”

In April 2016 when on holiday in Cyprus Ben slipped whilst playing with his two children, his seven-year-old step-daughter Olivia and two-year-old Iris, breaking his neck in three places.

Speaking to the SNJ in 2016 Emily Murray, a close friend of the family said: “It was a complete freak incident, he was playing with his girls when he lost his footing and slipped,”

“He hit his head on the bottom of the pool and instantly lost the use of his body."

After surgery in Cyprus to stabilise his three broken vertebrae, the travel insurance company organised the air ambulance to bring him back to the UK.

But flying Ben home did not turn out to be simple when the pilot had to make an emergency landing in Germany after pneumonia meant that Ben went into septic shock – a life-threatening condition that happens when your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level after an infection.

It was touch and go for the next few hours as emergency services worked to save Ben’s life on the runway and then to make sure he was stable enough to be transferred to hospital.

He spent the next 10 days in intensive care at a hospital near Munich recovering where medical staff also fitted him with a tracheotomy to help him breathe through a ventilator.

Once doctors deemed Ben stable enough to travel again, he was brought back to the UK via RAF base, Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

After spending a further two and a half months in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital Intensive Care Unit he was transferred to the Spinal Treatment Centre at Salisbury District Hospital where he currently resides.

Ben has come on leaps and bounds since his return to the UK, after initially suffering from chest infections and months on a ventilator he is able to breathe by himself.    

Despite his imminent return home Ben still requires ongoing care, support and rehabilitation.

 The Big Run will raise vital funds for specialist equipment essential for Ben to live his life back home in Avening.

Jonny and Matt have already raised £2,459 out of a targeted £5,400, which would pay for a home exercise bike tailored to Ben’s needs.

Businesses and individuals are being asked if they can kindly ‘sponsor a mile’ for £100, or donate what they can to help bring Ben home.

To make a donation click here.