A 24-year-old man is in intensive care in Turkey after breaking his neck diving into a swimming pool on the final night of a holiday.
Will Ponter, who was raised in Holme but now lives in Carnforth, underwent an emergency 13-hour surgery following the accident on Thursday, September 3, and doctors have said he will be paralysed from the neck down.
His partner Becky Francey, 27, and HIS family are by his side in Antalya but there is no timeline for when it will be safe for him to travel home.
Becky told the BBC: “We need to get him home, he's going to need special care. It's going to be a long road to recovery.”
Will and Becky’s families have launched a GoFundMe page to raise £150,000 to fund his stay in ICU alongside the cost to transport him home as he will need medical staff on board.
“In a second everything just changed,” said Becky.
"I was stood on the side as he jumped in, but he didn't come back up for a while, and when he did he was just floating face down.
"I knew he wasn't messing so I dived in, and I pulled him out and he instantly said 'I can't move.'"
Will was then rushed to hospital because of the severity of his injuries before being transferred to another for surgery.
Becky told the BBC that two German men took her to the hospital, where one of the men incredibly paid the cost of the 4,000-euro surgery.
"The surgery went extremely well," Becky said.
"They said that if he was any older they wouldn't have tried it, it was very risky surgery, but it went really well and he's breathing on his own now."
She said they have spoken a little but they can’t stay with him for more than 15 minutes at the moment.
The family said they do not have the correct insurance to cover all costs and they expect further costs to adapt his home to make it accessible.
Becky said: "We just take it hour by hour, it's the only way to survive, but the kindness that has come out of all this has been incredible.
"The amount of support from home has really lifted us, it feels like a big hug from around the world."
Becky’s mum Rebecca posted on the fundraising page: “This accident was a split second of tragedy that has now reshaped the entire future of a young man who is only 24 years old.”
Rebecca, who lives in the US, described the accident as “life-changing” and “heart breaking.”
She added: “If you have the good fortune to know Will and Becky then you know that as a couple, they are full of energy. They banter, and frolic and genuinely play and have fun together.”
The kindness of family, friends and strangers has meant that they have already raised over £110,000 at the time of writing.
“I wish for an abundance of love and well wishes of healing, and prayers, to circle the entire globe for him. He will need it,” said Rebecca.
“We are all focusing on being positive, and praying for a recovery that may seem miraculous. But as the saying goes, ‘Where there’s a Will, there’s a way.’”
The GoFundMe page for Will can be found here.
