A 65-YEAR-OLD man who suffered multiple injuries when he was trampled on by cows will cycle 250 miles to raise money for the Wales Air Ambulance.

Kieran Day from Tywyn, a former firearms officer for Aberystwyth and Machynlleth, will take on the fundraising challenge this weekend. He hopes to raise £2,000 for the charity he credits for saving his life.

Kieran was trampled by cows while out walking in August, 2020. Freak sea mist rolled in spooking the cows and he suffered life-threatening injuries including two collapsed lungs, 10 broken/flail ribs, a sternum broken in three places, a perforated liver and a shin split open to the bone.

“Initially a local GP and paramedics attended and carried out an emergency procedure to reinflate my lungs,” Kieran recalls.

“They were joined by a Wales Air Ambulance crew carrying the life saving fluids I needed, followed soon after by a trauma team who had been flown from Bangor Hospital by HM Coastguard.

“After stabilisation and being put in an induced coma, I was airlifted to Stoke Hospital where I received further treatment and extensive surgery, having my sternum supported with titanium plates and most of the ribs on the right side of my chest replaced/supported by titanium.

“If it wasn’t for the skill and professionalism of all the medics that came to my aid and subsequent prompt evacuation by helicopter to a major trauma centre, I wouldn’t be here today.”

As a thank you to the Wales Air Ambulance, Kieran will cycle from the Hook of Holland and back to raise money for them.

“Without them, and the NHS, I wouldn’t be here,” Kieran said.

Kieran served in the Parachute Regiment for 26 years and has always been a keen cyclist.

“When I was recovering I didn’t think I would be able to sit on a bike again, let alone ride one,” he said. “After physio and recovery, I have managed to get back out cycling, and other than a little loss of lung capacity, I am pretty much back to normal.”

Kieran will attend the airborne commemorative weekend in Arnhem, Holland, this weekend (16-18 September) and will raise money cycling from the Hook of Holland to Arnhem (165Km), and the return journey back to the Hook - a total of 330km.

When Kieran left the army in 1998, he moved to Tywyn and joined Dyfed Powys Police as a firearms officer for Aberystwyth and Machynlleth. He left the force in 2016.

So far, Kieran has raised £860. You can help him raise more by donating to the fundraiser at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kieran-day7?experiments