Father-of-two narrowly survives ladder fall

A father-of-two faces a long road to recovery after surviving a three-storey fall off a ladder which led to doctors removing part of his skull.

Scott Blankley, who works in construction, broke 11 ribs, his collarbone and several vertebrae in the accident, as well as suffering a brain bleed and damage to a lung and kidney.

His brother Kai has said the 47-year-old is very popular and "the soul of the party" and the family believed his personality was "still in there".

Scott's support system has raised more than £18,000 to help his family while he recovers at Southmead Hospital in Bristol and a group of his friends will hold a sponsored row at their old rugby club in April.

After initially being on a life-support machine in intensive care, part of Scott's skull was removed to allow swelling on his brain. This will need to be replaced by a titanium plate in the next few months.

"Over the past weeks he's been gradually getting better, he started breathing by himself and he's now able to swallow so is getting fed soft food," said Kai.

Scott also started walking with the help of physios, doing thumbs up and one-word answers, his brother said.

"It's slow but good progress and fingers crossed that continues," Kai said.

Scott was due to marry his partner Jo this year, which is now on hold.

Kai organised for 15 of Scott's friends he met through rugby to row a total of one million metres (three million feet) in 24 hours at Old Redcliffonians RFC.

"Me and my brother played for Old Reds for quite a while, we've got quite a history with them and they've been really good with helping us out," Kai said.

John Paul Hayes, Scott's brother-in-law, said: "Scott is probably the closest you could imagine to a real life superhero, so to hear he was in such a difficult situation, it was hard to believe."

Hayes, 45, who has a background in ultra endurance events, is going to be one of the 15 rowers.

"The amount of support for the fundraiser is a testament to Scott and what he means to people," he said.

"And he would have 100% been on that list if it was for someone else."

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