Help Dave get back to being Dave!

Hello There!

As many of you know, our friend Clióna Roberts’s husband Dave was knocked down by a van whilst cycling to work at the National Theatre. He was cycling in a cycling lane when the van came out of a side street without looking. Dave sustained major life-changing injuries of a shattered shoulder blade, a fractured elbow, 12 broken ribs and a punctured lung. He was told he would have died at the scene had it not been for the swift action of the ambulance crew.

He spent 10 days in Critical Care and another 10 day stay in the trauma unit at the Royal London Hospital. Many of you may know that Dave has liver cancer and has been receiving treatment for this for the past 4 years which by itself is stressful and makes him feel very poorly. He is on regular medication and frequent operations and has MRI scans every 3 months to check how the tumours are progressing. This was the very last thing he needed. His shattered shoulder blade was broken in 8 places and he underwent 7 hours in theatre resulting in a 7 metal pins and bar holding his shoulder together. They are now unsure if he can have an MRI scan with these new additions to his body which adds another layer of worry to his recovery.

It has also transpired that the van driver did not have any insurance. He is also unsurprisingly not responding to the police. The insurance would have gone some small way towards Dave’s rehabilitation which will be a long haul. He needs to start physiotherapy immediately to get back to strength and be fit enough for his ongoing cancer treatment. The NHS, as we all know are struggling and physio is not forthcoming for a few months. Dave is currently pretty infirm at home in severe pain from his shoulder and damaged lung, not to mention the 12 broken ribs.

People keep asking Clióna how they can help relieve some of the stress from her shoulders and also help Dave in getting back on his feet and to his remarkably resilient and sardonic self.