Maisie Sheridan is known for singing and performing at events in and around Dorset. On 16 September 2016, Maisie was involved in a serious road traffic incident. Her mum Ali tells us more…

I had literally just walked in from work at five o’clock when I received a call from my friend Mandy. Maisie walks to dance class every day with her daughter and friends. Mandy sounded panicky and then told me that Maisie had been in an accident.

My initial thought was that she'd fallen at dance or something and at first I wasn’t overly concerned. She then explained that Maisie had in fact been struck by a camper van while attempting to cross the road. I went into overdrive, panic and fear. I jumped into the car with my other half Paul and rushed to the scene.

The road traffic incident

Nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed. The road was cordoned off – Police, First Response, Ambulance, an off duty paramedic and passing first aiders were all attending to her.

Maisie’s face was badly swollen and she was thrashing around. The team believed that this could be due to her suffering a brain trauma and had made a call for the air ambulance to attend. The yellow helicopter landed at the nearby marsh.

The air ambulance journey

We were then driven to where the air ambulance had landed and secured in the aircraft. Maisie was attended to and monitored throughout the journey to Southampton Hospital. At one point she began to vomit but the crew swiftly cared for her and somehow, as frightened as I was, I knew she was being given the best possible chance of survival.

The journey took approximately 20 minutes and when we arrived consultants were waiting for her. She was immediately rushed to resus as time was of the essence. She underwent tests, which showed that she had fractured her skull and eye socket together with having a couple of lesions on her brain. She had soft tissue damage to her groin and knee and road burns to her torso. Due to the impact, Maisie also lost a layer of skin from her face, or in her words, “I lost some of my freckles!”

Maisie's recovery

Two days after the incident, Maisie woke up and said, “Am I going to school today?" After four days she came home to recover and hasn’t looked back. She begged me every day to let her return to school and her performing. She is achieving great results in her first year of school, and continues to sing and dance most nights. Thanks will never ever be enough and we are so grateful and lucky that the air ambulance came to her aid on that evening. Our heartfelt thanks go to your all.

As a way of saying thank you, Maisie has already begun using her skills to fundraise for the Charity. She has performed outside Morrison’s in Weymouth raising a whopping £250.75 and is planning to do many more. On 5th July 2017, Maisie came to meet the crew who played a part in saving her life. We were thrilled to see her looking so well!

If you've been inspired by Maisie's story and would like to help us to continue saving lives, we would be grateful to receive your donation. No matter how big or small, every penny donated really will make a big difference! Thank you.