THIS time last year he was given a 20 per cent chance of survival and told he might never walk again.

Now a year later Francis Davis from Murcot, near Evesham, is celebrating his 50th birthday by saddling up for a 50 mile bike ride to raise cash for the hospital which treated him.

Mr Davis, a keen cyclist and member of Worcester St John’s Cycling Club, had only been working in Portugal for a software company for a few weeks when he was hit by a car while out for an early morning bike on Wednesday, May 7 last year.

He was taken to nearby Centro Hospitalar do Porto where he was found to have suffered a massive range of injuries including a shattered pelvis, several cracked vertebrae, a broken coccyx along with three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, serious organ damage and severed femoral arteries – the main blood supply to the lower limbs.

“Luckily the driver who hit me pulled over to call the police,” he said. “He’s just as responsible for saving my life as anyone.

“It hurt so much – if ten is the worst pain you can have I was at about 15.

“I felt undone from the waist downwards.”

Although doctors at the Portuguese hospital – where he caught both pneumonia and MRSA – were unsure if Mr Davis would survive, let alone walk again, he persevered and was later flown back to the UK, first to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and later Bristol’s Southmead Hospital.

Although he was told by his physiotherapist it would probably be a year before he was able to walk again, and it was unlikely he would be able to get on a bike again, but exactly a year after his accident Mr Davis cycled 30 miles to Tewkesbury to cast his vote in the General Election.

“They gave me some exercises and I just did those non-stop,” he said.

“I was just so bloody determined to get healthy again.

“I rode my bike again on November 3. It was only three miles but that was enough.

“I’m not back to where I was, but compared to what my prognosis was I’m over the moon.”

Mr Davis, who paid tribute to his wife Jane and daughters Lauren, Holly, Georgia and Anya for their support through his recovery, said he had decided he wanted to give something back to the Portuguese hospital which had treated him in the crucial early hours and days.

“All the beds in the hospital in Portugal are like sunbeds,” he said. “There’s only a few choices when you want to adjust it.

“It’s not the most comfortable thing.

“When I got to Bristol I had this brand new bed which was so great.

“And I thought about the patients in Porto and thought it just wasn’t fair.”

At 8.30am on his 50th birthday – Saturday, May 30 – Mr Davis and a group of friends will set off from Evesham United FC in Cheltenham Road on a 50-mile bike ride around Mickleton, Broadway and back, joined by fellow cyclists in the USA, Portugal and elsewhere at the same time.

He said he hoped he could raise enough to pay for at least one electric bed – which cost €3,909, or £2,709 each – for the hospital.

As part of the fundraising effort Mr Davis’ daughter Holly has shot a video of him cycling and talking about his recovery, which can be seen at https://vimeo.com/121733613.

To sponsor Mr Davies visit https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/portohospitalbedride.