19/09/2013
Richard Holland is a South African colleague of mine. Richard and I met in Dubai where we got the chance to work together for Girot Trading, Sport In Life Division. He was the company's Marketing and Sales Manager and I was the After Sales Manager and one of the computer guy. Richard is a very passionate tri-athlete and employee. I can't remember any instance that Richard doesn't know something about our sport brands. He is always on top of his game when it comes to Sales and Marketing.
As an athlete, Rich progressed rapidly into the world of triathlon, proudly representing his country, South Africa, at the 2007 World Championships. He has competed regularly in competitions around the world from Thailand to Canada, Singapore to Hungary. It was on an early morning training ride (for an up-and-coming Ironman 70.3 race), that Rich was involved in his accident.
In the early hours of the morning on Thursday 11th October, 2012, Rich set out on his bike to make the short journey along Al Qudra Street from Motor City to the start of the new cycling track in Dubai. What was supposed to be a regular training ride, turned out to be anything but that. Despite excellent safety precautions, Rich was hit from behind by a car, sustaining multiple life-threatening injuries. These included: broken ribs, punctured lungs, a fractured sternum, fractured right fibula, and severe injuries to his brain. His brain injuries are substantial, the worst of which is a contusion on his brain stem which caused an immediate coma. Rich has what is known as a severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and the specific condition he has been left with is known as Locked-in Syndrome.
Due to the type of brain injury that Richard sustained in this awful accident, his brain has a loss of motor messages sent to his body and this means he is unable to move his body voluntarily at all. Only time and intense neuro rehab will tell if this motor control will be regained. This is obviously very frustrating and frightening for him and means he requires constant turning and re-positioning to prevent pressure sores. He also requires intensive physiotherapy, OT and Speech to keep his limbs mobile and prevent stiffness and contractures.
Because of this accident, Richard needs financial assistance to sustain his medication, therapy and other medical bills. A lot of people has already made donations, others have created fund raising campaigns to show their support. And I decided to help, using this website and resources that I have. I learned a lot of things from Richard and I believe I owe him. He helped me on times when he feels like a customer is discriminating me for whatever reason even though I'm doing my job the right way and he will cover me by him doing the explanation on my behalf. We always talk about our plans in life whenever we had the chance and this accident is a very big road block for him. Let us help Richard until he recovers, I'm sure that you can find it in your heart to give something to someone you may or may not know.
Visit: www.elwynrey.com for more details on how you can help. You may also share this story to as many people as you can.
Thank you and may God bless us all.
