Help Simon Say Thanks to Amazing NHS
Simon Cripps has very good reason to be grateful to the NHS.
The 20-year-old was playing for Harlequins U21s but when they hadn’t got a game turned out for his home team, Maidenhead RFC.
He was celebrating scoring five tries in Maidenhead’s victory over local rivals Marlow. He was decked out in not one but three grass skirts tied together to cover his “substantial posterior.”
It was a fun night in Cookham 20 years ago which went horribly wrong. Someone decided it would be amusing to set fire to the skirts but, unable to remove them, Simon ran out into the night where fuelled by oxygen the flames took hold.
A team mate rugby tackled him and smothered the flames with a jacket but not before Simon had suffered 43% of his body burned and life-threatening injuries.
Initially not expected to survive the night, Simon promised his father that he intended to live. After ten days on life support at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, with the help of NHS doctors, nurses and physios he made good that promise. It looked unlikely, however, that he would walk or use his hands as he once had, let alone play rugby again.
Seven months later, he ran out leading the team at Maidenhead onto the pitch, with a standing ovation from the crowd. He says: “Playing the game I loved again with the team that had supported me every day, standing out there with the crowd applause I certainly shed a tear.”
Simon’s father was at the time an NHS dentist, his mother an NHS nurse and his younger sister has since become an NHS GP. His wife, Cara is also an NHS physio who has been working on the front line during the coronavirus crisis.
Amazing NHS
Now an English teacher at Clares Court School, Simon adds: “At Stoke Mandeville I had an amazing doctor, Mike Tyler, unbelievable nurses and brilliant physios who, saved my life and put me back together.
“As I was approaching 40, I realised how hard all the NHS staff were working to save the lives of the nation and put it back together. I wanted to do something meaningful for them, both in thanks for their help for me in the past and all of us in the present crisis.”
Having captained Maidenhead First XV until five years ago and still holding their record for number of tries, with 170, Simon launched his 40-40 fundraiser for the NHS Charities and is currently at around £10,000.
His daughters Emilia (4) and Olivia (2) keep adding new challenges and some of the 40 are sporting endeavours like a half marathon ending at Maidenhead club, where he helps train pupils from his school on a daily basis. Some may entail spotting butterflies or making rainbows for the NHS heroes.
“Rugby and the NHS gave me self-belief on a day to day basis,” says Simon. “When I was on morphine in Stoke Mandeville, Sir Clive Woodward walked in with a bag of his stash for me and when I saw him in a Cookham pub years later he remembered.
“That’s rugby, they are there for you and have been getting behind my attempt to remember just how amazing our NHS staff are.”
If you want to help Simon pay tribute to our amazing NHS visit this page and to see his challenges please check the Instagram profile.
