Simon Turner

Every year, scores of people across the UK sustain a brain injury as a result of cycle accidents, leading to hospital admissions, rehabilitation and support from Headway - the brain injury association. Simon Turner is one of these people.

In an effort to get fit for his 40th birthday, Simon started a regular regime of cycling in the evening. Like too many people, he didn't wear a cycle helmet because he thought they looked stupid. On the evening of 26 July 2006, he was riding as usual. He called his wife at 6.30pm and told her he was five minutes from home. That's the last thing he remembers. Simon had blacked out for reasons unknown, fallen off his bike and hit his head on the pavement.

In the fall, Simon broke the base of his skull and sustained blood clots to either side of his head. Doctors operated on him to remove the blood clots by having his skull opened on either side of his head in order for the blood to be drained. It was a long and difficult operation and Simon's wife was informed that he might die and if he lived he could have severe brain damage.

He now has metal plates in his head. He has virtually lost the hearing in his right ear and had tinnitus in both ears. He suffers greatly from fatigue and his head hurts all the time where they cut his skull open, has no sense of smell or taste and has lost a significant amount of weight. Simon has also had therapy for a stutter acquired as a result of the accident and attended a course to manage his anger.

In Simon's own words: "If I could change anything in my life it would be to go back to that day and put my cycle helmet on, because my life, and that of my family, has changed forever."