Daughter goes the extra mile for charity which saved her father

Construction worker Gary Young, 52, fell 30ft to the ground after an undiagnosed brain aneurysm burst, causing him to collapse.

The father-of-two, who had been fixing an aerial on the roof of his family home in Thorne, broke nearly every rib and also punctured a lung and was airlifted to the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

His brain injury was only diagnosed in hospital where he spent more than two weeks in intensive care.

Now a year on his daughter Rachel, 24, an administrator with Redline Aviation Security at Robin Hood Airport, has become a volunteer to thank the air ambulance for its work.

She said: “You see it on telly, but you never imagine it happening to you, it was a four or five week whirlwind while he was in hospital.

“It is crazy to think the state he was in last year, now he’s up and about, although he’s not 100 per cent.

“He can’t really walk for distances and he tends to forget a lot of things.

“We are thankful he is here, that is all that matters. We can’t thank people enough.

“A lot of his injuries were internal and the pain he was in would have been out of the question for him to travel by road in a normal ambulance.

“I feel I am giving something back to them for everything they did for us - they are an amazing charity to be part of. They get nothing from the Government and have two helicopters to run. If they didn’t thousands of lives wouldn’t have been saved like my Dad’s.”

South Yorkshire regional fundraiser Mark Perry said volunteers were needed to attend events and spread the work about the charity. Volunteers can do as little or as much as they want to fit in with their lfestyle. Email [email protected].