Sometimes the biggest gifts come in the toughest of packages - Words from a Bike Accident Survivor

Back in 2013 there was a fundraising event at KUCLUB here on Koh Phangan. The reason for the event was to help a lady called Andrea.

Andrea had been in an accident, details of the crash were sketchy as Miss Woodmansey could not remember anything before or after the crash, but it is understood that she lost control of her bike on a wet road on her way home to Chalong, and may have crashed into a vehicle. Thing was, she was wearing a helmet at the time.

Even though Andrea was wearing a helmet she still suffered two major breaks in one leg, a broken clavicle, a severely damaged patella, several skull fractures and major nerve damage.

She had a broken left femur, a fractured left kneecap, a fractured right arm, a torn liver, a collapsed lung, as well as her right knee tearing open.

She was taken to a government hospital in Thailand and underwent two rounds of surgery but sadly had no insurance so the care was being given at an absolute minimum. She needed to raise the funds to get back to the UK to be treated there.

Andrea had been living on the island for 4 years and as a seasoned local, knew the importance of wearing a helmet but this awful accident still happened. This also highlights the need for travel insurance, you never know what may happen and you may end up for a huge bill to pay so it’s really important that you get some before you travel.  

Andrea is now healed and has found a better way since her accident but in light of recent events surrounding bike safety on Koh Phangan, Samui and Koh Tao we urge you to wear a helmet and take care.

Here are some creative and wise words from Andrea herself, a letter from an earlier Phanganist person;

“Sometimes the biggest gifts come in the toughest of packages.  

After a lifetime of putting off my bliss of music in the pursuit of creating ‘a life’, I finally woke myself up through a near-fatal motorbike accident in 2013 – take my advice do not ignore your inner calling!!  

I spent two years in a wheelchair and paralysed my right arm but I always knew that this seeming tragedy would blossom into treasures.

In the three long years of virtual hermitude that followed, I discovered my true nature and many truths about the nature of our reality and I finally began to let my music flow.  

‘People’ is the 2nd song I wrote, I say wrote, but in truth it wrote itself and at the time I didn’t know its purpose, but that was soon revealed and the plans to create this album and promote the work of the light warriors of this world was hatched.  

We are family, we are one and together we CAN create heaven on earth…”