As you will probably remember, I was involved in a serious car accident in December 2008, when a van driving in the other direction drifted onto my side of the road and hit my car just about head on.  I received a variety of injuries including multiple fractures to my arms and right hip.  I was eventually cut out of the wreckage and rapidly transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the Herts Air Ambulance.  After two months in hospital and another month at home not allowed to put any weight on my right leg, I began physiotherapy so I could walk again.  Now I am largely back to my original self, but with a few symptoms which I am unlikely to recover from.

I really believe that if it were not for the Herts Air Ambulance getting me rapidly from the Watton-at-Stone bypass to Addenbrooke’s, it is unlikely that I would be able to continue hiking and live the normal life I am now enjoying (I really don’t know how I ever found time to work!).  Consequently, I am WALKING THE WACHAU in aid of HERTS AIR AMBULANCE, and would ask as many of you as possible to sponsor me.

For a while before I was made redundant, I had hoped to do something special to celebrate my retirement, and one thing I had planned to do was to walk the Danube path through Austria, from Passau on the German border to Vienna.  Unfortunately, my hip is no longer able to cope with a walk of that length (about 300km).  Consequently, I now plan to walk a circuit of the Wachau region between Melk and Krems.  I think this is one of the prettiest regions of the river (and has the advantage of many vineyards).  The length of this is a little under 100km, and I hope to do it in five days.

Please dig deeply, and pass this e-mail to anyone you can think of who might be willing to help.  I have set up a JustGiving page (locator below) where you can sponsor online, and they also deal with claiming back the Gift Aid.  If I can find suitable wireless connections, I hope to keep the page updated with my progress during the walk.

http://www.justgiving.com/David-Albinson-WalktheWachau

David Albinson's sponsored walk for Herts Air Ambulance