On 12 April 2025 Archaeologist Mark Horton, best known for presenting BBC’s Coast for 11 years, was carrying out routine maintenance on a yacht at Lydney Harbour, when the vessel fell on its side. Mark was catapulted three or four metres onto the slipway below. He found himself in urgent need of Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC).

Mark landed in a six-inch layer of Severn River mud and cold water—not enough to break his fall. As he fell, he caught his right arm, possibly in the rigging, and he hit the floor in writhing pain with one hand at a strange right angle to his arm.

Bystanders immediately called 999 and then rolled Mark onto an old bit of tarpaulin and up the slipway out of the mud. They also found a piece of driftwood and used gaffer tape to put his arm in a splint.

“I knew I was going to be OK when I saw the air ambulance”

Mark says, “The first thing I remember when I came out of shock was seeing the bright green and blue air ambulance helicopter circling above. I’ll never forget sitting on the mud on the old tarp on the slipway in a driftwood splint and looking up and seeing the helicopter. It was an amazing sense of relief.”

GWAAC’s Critical Care Team arrived at the scene within ten minutes of the call to 999, at the same time as the road ambulance. Mark says, “They got me off the tarp and onto the stretcher and put me in the ambulance. We were covered in mud.” The GWAAC crew assessed Mark and administered strong pain relief—medication that some road ambulances do not carry and something Mark was very grateful for: “It was the drugs that made the difference. I can’t imagine the amount of agony I would have been in if I had travelled to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital without them.”

GWAAC’s Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine (PHEM) Trainee Dr Celestine straightened his arm before the journey to hospital because the blood flow to the hand and nerves were compromised. Mark said, “I didn’t realise that air ambulances carried doctors on board. I watched Dr Celestine straighten my arm — she was fantastic. Luckily, I’m not squeamish about these things and looking back, I think myself quite lucky. Perhaps it was my old-fashioned Titanic-style life jacket that took the brunt of the fall and saved me from a far worse fate.”

”What GWAAC did for me, was help me to carry on being an archaeologist, to do my livelihood. It’s my digging hand you see!”

Ten days later, Mark had surgery on his hand. He still has a long recovery ahead with lots of physiotherapy, but he remains upbeat: “The high level of care I received that day, at the scene of my accident before I got to hospital, means I have no long-term damage and can continue a normal life. Everyone had a part to play: GWAAC, the road paramedics and the people at the yacht club, as well as the care I received in hospital, they’ve given me back my quality of life.”

Mark says, “I’ve never broken a bone before and to think, I’ve sailed all around the coast of Britain and I’ve been to all these exotic places filming and for my archaeological work, and yet it was at my local harbour where I got into trouble! It just proves you never know what life is going to throw at you and when. All I can say is, thank goodness for our local air ambulance!”

Dr Celestine said, “Treating Mark that day was a real privilege. As a Trainee Critical Care Doctor, it was a valuable opportunity to put my training into practice in a high-stakes situation. It was even more rewarding to see him afterwards and hear how important his hand is to his archaeological work; knowing we played a part in preserving his ability to keep doing what he loves was incredibly fulfilling.”

Two days after his accident, Mark got in touch with GWAAC to say thank you. Two months later, he visited the crew who helped him at GWAAC’s airbase in Almondsbury. He said, “It was amazing to meet the crew who saved my hand (and career). They showed me on the map where they landed and the route they walked with all their kit on their backs to get to me. I learned that I was patient number two out of five that day and that as they were walking back to the helicopter, they were tasked to somebody else in urgent need of critical care.”

About GWAAC

1. GWAAC provides the critical care and air ambulance service for 2.1 million people across Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and parts of Wiltshire.
2. The GWAAC Critical Care Team consists of highly trained and experienced Critical Care Doctors, Advanced Practitioners and Specialist Paramedics in Critical Care, who bring the skill and expertise of a hospital emergency department to the patient.
3. 2024 was GWAAC’s busiest year on record with 2,272 people in urgent need requiring immediate critical care. GWAAC’s Critical Care Team is needed by more than six patients a day on average and rushes to treat them by helicopter or critical care car. On average each mission costs around £2,200 to attend.
4. The charity needs to raise over £4 million a year in order to remain operational yet receives no day-to-day funding from the Government or National Lottery.