(This story was updated on 19 August 2026)
On Father’s Day, 2016. I was due to travel to London with my wife and two young boys to see the movie premier of ‘The Secret Life of Pets’. I worked for the company who made the movie and the day was intended to be an exciting family day to remember.
While my family were getting ready, I decided to go for a quick ride on my Vespa motorbike. That decision changed my life, I didn’t return home for another nine weeks, and our lives would never be the same.
I was riding down a single-track country lane, about a mile from where I lived in Marden, Kent, when I collided head-on with a car on a blind bend with high hedgerows. I went one way and my bike went the other.
Lying on my back on the tarmac in the middle of the road with the late morning sun beating down on me, I could see my scooter on its side, and was thinking `I’m not going to get the scratches out of that bike. I don’t remember feeling any pain, I just felt as if I had been winded and couldn’t get up. I was quite calm and relaxed, as if I needed to rest in that position for a while. I remember that I could also see that one of my shoes had come off and was on its own about five metres away, which seemed a strange thing to happen.
A group of cyclists gathered round me, I held onto one of their ankles, presumably for some human contact. I asked one of them to pour water from their drinking bottle onto my face to cool me down as I was really starting to feel very hot.
Then I remember seeing two blurry figures in red coming towards me from the edge of my sight; I learned later that they were Paramedic Craig Prentice and Doctor Leonieke Vlaanderen from Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) who arrived by Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV) from the air ambulance base, which was then in Marden, a mile away.
They’ve since told me that they knew how serious the situation was as soon as they saw me and my motorbike in situ. I urgently needed attention.
I honestly didn’t think I was badly enough injured to need a road ambulance let alone even contemplating the need of an air ambulance team, and I also had no idea the air ambulance crews sometimes went to people by RRV. All I was thinking was that I needed to get home to be in time to catch a train to London.
Leonieke and Craig were really reassuring. Suddenly I didn’t feel like a nuisance lying in the middle of the road.
As they put the scoop next to me so they could move me, I tried to move myself even though I couldn’t, and they calmly told me to stay where I was.
Dr Leonieke Vlaanderen explains:
Initially we gave Warren strong painkillers and some ketamine to sedate him because he was in so much pain. We then packaged him up so that we could take him by land ambulance back to the air ambulance base at Marden.
Inside the base we continued to treat him, anaesthetising him by giving him a Rapid Sequence Induction, or RSI, so that we could take control of his breathing and ensure his brain got enough oxygen.
We then gave him blood and plasma and a double thoracostomy. This procedure involves making an incision under the armpit to release fluids and air that have gathered around the lung and are stopping it from reinflating.
Warren had fractured ribs on his right-hand side, injuring his right lung and causing it to collapse with no air going into it. Initially we did the thoracostomy on the right-hand side as we were not so worried about the left-hand side. However, when his oxygen levels didn’t pick up, we did the left side too.
We could have done all this at the scene, but he was quite stable and it was safer to do it near the aircraft back at the base rather than a narrow country lane so that we could get him quickly to hospital if we needed to.
Warren recalls what happened next:
Captain Blaine Ashurst flew us to King’s College Hospital in London, where the team spent three hours treating me in the emergency room. In addition to my obvious rib fractures the accident caused lacerations to my liver, spleen and kidney. Shortly after arrival at A&E I was declared code red which means I needed further blood transfusions totalling nine pints of blood.
Meanwhile the police went to my house to break the news to my family. Amanda, my wife, was taken to London in a police car travelling under blue lights and was warned that my injuries were so severe I might not survive. When Amanda arrived at the hospital, Leonieke was still there and spoke to her, which really helped her understand the situation and her wellbeing in the emotional chaos.
In hospital I remained in an induced coma for two weeks under critical care. During that time my ribs were rebuilt using titanium plates, which are there to this day. Once I left critical care, I had a series of operations and remained in hospital for a further seven weeks before eventually going home.
Recovery and KSS
A few months into my recovery at home, I visited KSS at Marden to meet Craig, Blaine and some of the incredible KSS team with Amanda and our boys, Freddie and Albert. I’d visited the KSS base a few times before my accident because I’d raised money through a charity sky dive and I thought the KSS team were all amazing. I realised straight away that everyone who worked for KSS, whatever they did, was part of my survival. It wasn’t just the crew who came out to me, it was everybody.
Because KSS had saved me I really wanted to say thank you by helping the charity, so in the summer of 2017 I signed up to become a volunteer, and I’ve never looked back. My first volunteer assignment was helping on a rest station, giving out bananas and drinks at a cycling event outside the KSS Marden base. I was so proud to become a KSS volunteer and wear the KSS volunteer’s lanyard and polo shirt.
I got involved with lots of KSS initiatives, including talking at schools, Women’s Institutes, Parish Councils, sports events, corporate events, cheque presentations and village fete information stands. I started to be invited to do media interviews, I was also a guest speaker at the Redhill Air Aid Ball in 2019, and when KSS said goodbye to their Marden base. One of my proudest moments was when I was invited to be personally introduced to Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, as part of the KSS 30th anniversary celebrations and I gave a talk about my KSS journey to the invited attendees.
I was told by one of my brilliant specialist consultants that I would probably never be able to run again because the severity of the injuries to my lungs, but in 2019, I ran the Paddock Wood half-marathon in aid of KSS, which was a significant personal milestone.
Working for KSS
I’d been telling myself for ages that one day I would work for KSS, but I had a very well established 26-year career in broadcasting, which was going from strength to strength. I realised what was important to me and I knew full well that life was very fragile. If I kept saying `one day’, that day might not come. So, in 2024, I followed my dream and successfully applied for the role of Events Manager at KSS.
I’ve worked at KSS since November 2024 and every single day I pinch myself. I have the privilege to meet, and work with, so many amazing people. There is so much humanity at KSS, and I believe everyone at KSS really cares about the work we do – whether that’s service delivery, income generation or marketing and communications, people are here for the right reason.
In January 2026, I proudly stepped into the exciting new role of Head of KSS in Your Community, which is an incredible project that will touch every aspect of our work. I feel honoured to be entrusted with something that is going to have such an impact on the communities we serve and on KSS as an organisation, to be entrusted with the responsibility of this positively blows me away.
When I had the worst day of my life, KSS was there to help me. I’m honoured to be part of this incredible organisation and working to make sure that it can continue to be there in future for people across the communities that we serve and to continue to keep families like mine together…Follow those dreams and remember, life is fragile.
