A THAME man who had his cheek sliced open in a freak accident on a motorway has donated £1,500 and more than 80 toys to the hospital which helped him recover.
Pierre Taylor, who is the managing director of Thame Ford, presented a cheque to Stoke Mandeville Hospital last week, after raising money from a toy sale.
He also handed the remaining toys to be distributed in the children’s ward at Christmas.
Pierre was driving along the M40 near Thame back in September when a large chunk of metal was flicked up by the car in front and smashed through the windscreen, striking him in the face.
He was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital by his girlfriend who, luckily, was following close behind.
“It came clean through my windscreen, hit me in the face and landed on the back seat.
“It was such a heavy piece of metal that it cut straight through the glass.”
“If it had been a couple of inches to the side I don’t think I would have survived.
“There was a lot of blood.”
Pierre held a toy sale last month to raise money for the hospital.
He collected more than 1,000 toys at the garage in Thame and sold them over the course of one weekend.
Pierre said the bulk of the toys were donated by Vogue International of Berinsfield and Spinmaster Toys of Bourne End to whom he is eternally grateful.
“I wanted to raise £1,000 so to get to £1,500 was really good.”
The toys will be handed out by Santa to youngsters in the Children’s ward at Stoke Mandeville on Christmas Day.
Speaking about the dangerous incident, Pierre admitted: “I’m lucky to be alive.
“It looks like it may be a brake pad from a lorry.
“Windscreens are laminated so it took something pretty hefty to go clean through.
“It was such an unfortunate incident, an absolute fluke, so it would be good to raise some money for a good cause because of it.
“I’ve kept the piece of metal. The miracle is that I didn’t crash straight away.”