Crash ends charity bike ride

Five days after entering Namibia as part of a three-month, two-continent charity motorcycle ride in aid of children, Thomas Silvester was airlifted from Lüderitz to Johannesburg after he sustained serious injuries in a crash near Aus in southern Namibia.
It was confirmed on Monday that Silvester, originally from the UK but based in Cape Town, was stable but still unconscious in an intensive care unit in Johannesburg.
Although details about the crash remain scant, an Aus resident said the 27-year-old management consultant and self-described “part-time adventurer” was rescued after his motorcycle crashed on a gravel road 10 kilometres from Aus on Friday.
On Saturday evening, following a massive response to a call for help by friends on Facebook, LifeLink Emergency Rescue Services contacted Silvester’s family and received the official go-ahead from Silvester’s parents in the UK to airlift him to Johannesburg.
The full extent of Silvester’s injuries remains unconfirmed, but sources say he sustained a serious concussion, and broke an arm and his nose.
The outlook is positive. “He is stable. On the road to recovery,” a friend told Namibian Sun.
Silvester’s ambitious charity bike ride began on 9 April when he departed from Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, on a journey that was slated to end at the “most northern point of the UK” within approximately three months.
The bike adventure from the southernmost tip of Africa to the northernmost tip of the UK was undertaken in aid of the Save the Children charity trust.
On his website, www.thelongwayhome2016.com, Silvester writes that he is “passionate about charity and providing children with a positive start in life. My experience working with children’s charities has driven me to want to make an impact.”
He lists a number of challenges he has completed in aid of charities, including running the Berlin Marathon in aid of young homeless people, and kayaking across Scotland in aid of cancer charities.
JANA-MARI SMITH