SLIDE RULER!
Aberdare Park, South Wales, June 28, 1986: Neil Tuxworth is battling with a young Carl Fogarty on the last lap of the 250cc race when disaster strikes. He loses control of his bike and smashes into a tree – it’s a bad one. Doctors and immediate family fear for his life, such are his injuries. He would eventually recover but it would take a full three years.
“I broke my pelvis in seven places and my left leg was wrapped around my neck as the hip had popped out, and it was shattered,” Tuxworth explains. “I also shattered my right femur, cut my stomach open, damaged my bladder, severed my urethra – I was very lucky to live.
“I was down to just four pints of blood at one stage. I think they had to give me 108 pints of blood before they could stop me bleeding. I was on life support for nine months, in hospital for two years, and couldn’t walk for nearly three years. I got totally addicted to morphine and it took me a year to get off that. I lost a lot of weight too. I was 11st 10lb when I crashed and 6st 9lb when I went home – I only survived because I was fit. I was a long distance runner back then.
“All the doctors and surgeons said my fitness saved my life – that I should
