Fundraising campaign started after Eathorpe farmer loses arm in tragic accident

Andy Webster was seriously injured while he was bailing on a farm last week near Ryton on Dunsmore.

The 44-year-old was rushed to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire where after several hours of surgery doctors weren’t able to save his arm. His right arm was amputated from just below the shoulder.

The accident happened, as described by family friend Alison Miles, after he got on top of the machinery to attend to a mechanical noise and slipped on grass dust. In mere moments his arm was ‘grabbed by by the machine’, pulling him with such force he incurred life-changing injury almost instantly.

Alison said: “Luckily he was not alone and his colleague managed to halt the machine before it was too late, without him there to help at that critical moment Andy would not be alive.”

Alison and her husband, David Miles, have launched a fundraising campaign to help support Andy and his wife, Angie.

“He’s so reticent about the whole experience so far. He’s a good guy. If you needed something doing he’d be there. He’s one of life’s good guys.”

Andy is still in hospital and faces further surgery this week, yet doctors are hopeful he has retained sufficient nerves intact at his shoulder that will in time benefit from a bionic prosthetic arm.

Alison said they’ve learned the possibility of a bionic arm is only available in America, and comes with a cost of £50,000. She added: “He must first come to terms with a standard prosthetic. We’ll just keep campaigning and raising funds.”

On the Just Giving page Andy is described as a ‘lovable and inimitable character known by so many, a real trooper to the core and one who works all hours and weathers to help others’.

Alison also added on the Just Giving page: “Yet the blessing we are all thankful for is how incredibly lucky he is to have survived with his life.

“With stalwart character, he is keen to return to work as soon as possible, never accepting defeat no matter what life throws at him, even under these unimaginable circumstances to have found inner strength to just get on with it as he always does is truly inspirational.”

Anyone who like to help they can use the following link https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/poweroffriends to the Just Giving page. Nearly 50 per cent of the £10,000 target has been reached.

Friends have also organised a fundraiser event called Andy’s Charity Auction at 6.30pm on August 2 at the Red Lion pub in Hunningham. For more information on upcoming fundraising events see the campaign’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/eathorpeandy/

Alison added on the Just Giving page: “We should take a moment to give thanks for our own blessings and find in our hearts the empathy for others in greater need. This is the collective power we can use to raise awareness for his well being in hope to give him the security he may need now and for the future.”