“I was told it was a miracle” – Kendal crash survivor

A woman from Kendal was told it was a miracle she survived after a car lost control and knocked her from her motorbike and into a motorway hard shoulder.

Sarah Galvani was having a ride out back in May 2014 when the accident happened.

Sarah said: “I am a member of Morecambe Bay Estuaries Advanced Motorcycle (MBEAM) club, and we were having a weekly meeting at Glasson Dock in Lancaster, so I jumped on my bike and rode down to meet everyone and have breakfast.

“On the way back, I decided to take the motorway instead of the back roads. I was in the first lane, and it wasn’t busy – there was a lorry ahead of me.

The 57-year-old overtook the lorry moving into the middle lane and that’s when she heard a screech of brakes. A car had lost control and side-swiped her.

Sarah said: “The car knocked me off my bike and sent my bike flying up the M6 motorway and I went rolling into the hard shoulder.

“A wonderful brave woman stopped and came over to see me and I remember her saying ‘Is he ok?’ not realising that I was female because I had my helmet and bike gear.

“Although I was lying there concussed and confused, I somehow remembered my husband Dave’s number.”

It wasn’t long until the emergency services arrived on scene and Sarah recalls everything going quiet when the police shut the road.

Sarah said: “One of the officers lay on his tummy on the road and held my head– that’s when they told me the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) was on its way.

“GNAAS landed on the southbound carriageway. The team came over, examined me, and asked me which bits of my body hurt the most. They then gave me morphine and cut off my biking jeans.

“It’s funny really because they were concerned for my privacy, but I was lying there on the motorway half naked with my knickers on show and I really didn’t care. At least I was alive.”

GNAAS put Sarah onto a stretcher and into the aircraft.

Sarah said: “I remember feeling spaced out and had an itchy nose. The paramedic and doctor were laughing at me because I was trying to lift my arm to itch it which was an effect of the morphine.

“I was airlifted to Royal Preston Hospital and when the doctor stood over me, he said it was a miracle I didn’t have any major injuries other than grazes from skidding across the road. They eventually discovered a broken scaphoid bone but my motorbike gear definitely saved me.”

She added: “I have made a full recovery and a year after my accident I got back on a motorbike for the first time.

“Without GNAAS things could have been so much worse and I have been so lucky.”