Terry Dukes Appeal
Dear All, many thanks to those who have made donations to this appeal. On behalf of Terry I'd also like to thank Ann and the ex-pat community in Brunei who did an amazing fund raiser.
Please watch the new video, Terry Dukes The Homecoming, the link is below. There was very bright sunshine as Terry flew in, it was an amazing morning all round. Terry is now at Portsmouth Hospital. Doctors have told the family they are not sure what will be the extent of Terry's recovery as the injury to his brain is very serious. His mum is visiting him every day now and Terry is breathing without a ventilator for the first time in weeks.
Thanks for reading and for caring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnHT3uliVpI
********************************************************
Terry Dukes, has lived in Borneo for almost twenty years. He was a diver and marine biologist and worked to help preserve the coral reefs and beautiful marine ecology. He spent years navigating and mapping the seabed of the North West coastline. There are many uncharted shipwrecks lying on the seabed, some relics from WWII and these provide shelter for marine life, acting like coral reefs.
Please see this link to a website of Terry’s detailing some of the wrecks he had located. http://www.northborneoshipwrecks.com/
Tragically on 11.01.12 Terry had a serious accident in Brunei and since then Terry has been gravely ill in the RIPAS Hospital. Terry needs intensive neurological treatment to recover and due to complications Terry’s insurance will not cover the cost of his medical care. Terry was insured with DAN (Divers Alert Network) for years but due to a little publicized change in 2010 many divers like Terry, have been caught out thinking they are insured where they are not. Please see this link for the changes to DAN.
Royal Brunei Airlines have been extremely kind and made provision to repatriate Terry back to the UK by stretcher on one of their commercial carriers. But when medics from the UK company, “Mediaviation” arrived in Borneo on 11.04.12 they stated that Terry was too gravely ill for repatriation on a commercial flight and the only way Terry can be brought back to the UK is in an air-ambulance. Mediaviation took their fee (£7200) but Terry remained in the RIPAS hospital.
On 24.04.12 Terry’s mother, Mrs. Jane Dukes, age 88 and invalided, spent the day in the UK passport office getting a new passport. Once turning eighty years of age she didn’t expect to travel abroad again, but with her son so gravely ill Jane was determined to risk her own life to travel to Borneo to nurse Terry.
Please use this YouTube link to see a 3 minute video of Jane Dukes’ visit to the passport office:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oKBV6hylB0
It was after we were let down by Mediaviation that I wrote to His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei. Well known to be a compassionate and generous man, I reached out to the Sultan, telling him of Terry's plight. Within a few weeks HM the Sultan responded, agreeing to sponsor an air ambulance. We were all overwhelmed by HM the Sultan's generosity and sensitivity to this case. Please see these links for more on HM the Sultan of Brunei.
http://www.sci-tech-soc.org/Commonwealth-Day-HM-Sultan-of-Br.htm
http://www.pbase.com/depeche_2004/sultan2006
Thanks to HM the Sultan of Brunei Terry is being flown back by AirMed http://www.airmed.co.uk/ Terry will go straight to the Neurology Centre at Southampton General Hospital.
But what of his future? In Brunei Terry lived and worked with his beautiful Japanese girlfriend Nami, they were planning to marry. Nami cared for Terry while he was at the RIPAS hospital, but she cannot afford to fly to the UK and even if she could there is nowhere for them to be together. Terry is going to require long term care to help him recover from his brain injury. As soul mates, it will be extremely painful for Terry and Nami to be apart and we sincerely hope that one day they will be reunited back in their beloved Brunei paradise - where they can resume their marine conservation work.
Please give generously so that Terry Dukes receives the specialist treatment he needs.
Thank you.
