A big fantastic, cheer for eight-year-old Bradley who took on an amazing charity cycle challenge to raise funds for the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance.

On Sunday 21 August, Bradley cycled a 31-mile route from Benniworth, near Louth, to LNAA Headquarters near Waddington. It was his way of saying thank you for the wonderful care and treatment he received from our crew following a horrific cycling accident.

He undertook his charity cycle challenge with his father and two grandfathers and relished the chance to race them on some of the stretches. He said: “I am really good on the hills and I love endurance, it means you can go at a steady pace for a long time. I hope to be a World Champion one day and wear a yellow jersey on the Tour de France.”

“I also wanted to raise some money for Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance because I wanted to thank them for what they did. They helped me a lot on the day, especially when they got the bike separated. If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t have been looked after as quickly.”

Bradley is aiming to raise £2,000.

Earlier in the year, Bradley was competing in an off-road cycle competition at Benniworth Motor Cross Track when he suffered potential life-threatening injuries following a freak accident. Bradley remembers what happened. “ I thought it was a simple topple-over, but then I was told to lay still on the ground, I was there in the thick boggy mud for two hours”.

The brake lever had gone in Bradley’s leg. Dr Hancock, who treated Bradley said: “We were in a big, muddy field, not the easiest environment to work in. Bradley was in a lot of pain and getting cold as he was in thick mud. It was potentially really serious because there are vessels and nerves there which means an injury like that could cause a lot of damage. These are the things we don’t know on the way there and the concern was whether this was life or limb threatening. Something like this could have been life-changing for a child.”

Amazingly, just three weeks after the crash, Bradley was back racing.