Craig fundraises £1,162 to say thank you for saving best friend's life!
On 17 February 2019 Ryan Wayne, much like most 26 year olds was out in Birmingham City Centre enjoying a night out with friends. Sadly, things were to take a turn for the worse.
In the early hours of the morning Ryan was tragically involved in a vicious knife attack. Ryan was immediately rushed to QEHB’s Trauma Unit. Upon arrival, doctors assessed the damaged that had been inflicted by the knife attack via a CT scanner and discovered that his liver had been severely lacerated. After surgery performed by specialist liver and trauma surgeons, one week in the Intensive Care Unit and one week in Ward 726 he was thankfully discharged on 1 March 2019. During his stay at QEHB, Ryan was overwhelmed at the outstanding care that he had received, and wanted to say a huge thank you to all the staff that had helped him on the road towards recovery.
Ryan said: “Around 6 weeks ago I was admitted into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital because of a devastating knife attack. This hospital and its staff saved my life. Knife crime incidents in the UK have reached astronomical numbers. After personally being effected by knife crime, I fully understand its effects: devastation, upset and chaos. There were 39,818 knife crime offences in the 12 months ending September 2018. These offences continue to rise and have risen rapidly in the last four years. Teachers, social workers, police and parents need to come together and work together to stop this epidemic and rid the streets of violence and trauma. We must stand together.”
Pictured above: Ryan Wayne shortly after being discharged from QEHB.
After hearing about the horrific incident that had happened to his best friend, Craig Butler decided to fundraise for the hospital that helped to save Ryan’s life. For his birthday, Craig appealed to his Facebook friends to not buy him presents, but rather to donate just £1 to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity in order to fund a Mobile CT Scanner, which will be able to save even more lives like Ryan’s. This wonderful gesture that Craig made resulted in fundraising an astonishing £1,162.
Sophie Carroll, Senior Fundraiser for QEHB Charity said: “Thank you so much Craig for fundraising such a fantastic amount of money to the hospital charity! Your donations will help to provide patients with a piece of equipment that is ‘over and above’ what the NHS can fund. A special thank you also goes to Ryan for sharing your story with us, it was a privilege to meet you and I wish you a speedy recovery and all the best for the future!”
Thankfully, Ryan is now on the road to recovery and will hopefully be back to work soon as a primary school teacher! Ryan and his family have pledged to help the hospital charity in any way that they can in the future.
If you have been inspired by Ryan’s story and would like to help in funding towards the life-saving Mobile CT Scanner, please visit hospitalcharity.org/donate to donate today, thank you!
For more information on the Mobile CT Scanner, click here