A Kendal woman has shared her ‘miracle’ story of survival after she was involved in a serious motorbike crash
Sarah Galvani, 57, was on her way back from a meet up with the Morecambe Bay Estuaries motorcycle club when a car lost control and knocked her from her motorbike and into a hard shoulder.
Sarah said: “We were having a weekly meeting at Glasson Dock in Lancaster, so I jumped on my bike and rode down to meet everyone and have breakfast.
“On the way back, I decided to take the motorway instead of the back roads. I was in the first lane, and it wasn’t busy – there was a lorry ahead of me.
The 57-year-old overtook the lorry moving into the middle lane when she heard a screech of brakes – a car had lost control and side-swiped her.
Sarah added: “The car knocked me off my bike and sent my bike flying up the M6 motorway and I went rolling into the hard shoulder.
“A wonderful brave woman stopped and came over to see me and I remember her saying ‘Is he ok?’ not realising that I was female because I had my helmet on and bike gear. Although I was lying there concussed and confused, I somehow remembered my husband Dave’s number.”
Emergency services arrives on the scene and Sarah recalls everything going quiet as police shut the road.
She said: “One of the officers lay on his tummy on the road and held my head– that’s when they told me the Great North Air Ambulance Service was on its way.
“GNAAS landed on the southbound carriageway. The team came over, examined me, and asked me which bits of my body hurt the most. They then gave me morphine and cut off my biking jeans.
“It’s funny really because they were concerned for my privacy, but I was lying there on the motorway half naked with my knickers on show and I really didn’t care. At least I was alive.”
Sarah was then lifted onto a stretcher and into the helicopter where she was then transported to the Royal Preston Hospital.
She said: “I remember feeling spaced out and had an itchy nose. The paramedic and doctor were laughing at me because I was trying to lift my arm to itch it which was an effect of the morphine.
“I was airlifted to Royal Preston Hospital and when the doctor stood over me, he said it was a miracle I didn’t have any major injuries other than grazes from skidding across the road. They eventually discovered a broken scaphoid bone but my motorbike gear definitely saved me.”
After making a full recovery, Sarah got back on her motorbike a year later and hasn’t looked back since. She added: “Without the Great North Air Ambulance things could have been so much worse and I have been so so lucky.”
The Great North Air Ambulance does not receive government funding and is dependent on donations to survive. To donate or find out more about the charity visit www.gnaas.com.
