From ANDREW DRUMMOND,
Bangkok, September 4 2010
ITV London Tonight
Link to Daily Mail and video
Update: Sept 7 2010 – All of this money has now been raised
A mystery benefactor and the public have raised the equivalent of £43,000 to save the life of a young Briton, who was involved in a horrific motorcycle crash in Thailand, and bring him home.
Gina Allaway was staggered to learn that a mystery benefactor paid over £25,000 for hospital treatment for her 27-yr-old son Tom Moss.
And yesterday she was also stunned when she heard that over £18,700 was raised in a public appeal in Britain with the figure still rising. The surge in cash followed an appeal on ITV London Tonight.
But Tom will still remain have to remain stranded in Thailand while an appeal for funds continues to medi-vac him back home. So far just over half £18,700 of £30,000 has been raised.
‘Yesterday I was in despair. Now I have some real hope of getting Tom back home.’
Gina Allaway with her son Tom in Bamrungrad Hospital
Gina Allaway with her son Tom in Bamrungrad Hospital
Today Tom’s mother Gina Allaway, 53, said outside Bumrungrad Hospital Bangkok:’ It’s amazing. I cannot thank people enough. So many have dipped into their own pockets.’
The initial mystery cash from an anonymous donor, believed to be an expatriate Briton, was used to pay hospital bills in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where the accident happened, and Bangkok and included £12,000 alone on a life-saving operation for 27-yr-old Tom Moss, who worked in telephone sales.
Said Mrs Allaway: ‘It’s a total mystery. The hospital will not tell me who paid the bills. Whoever it was paid on the condition of total privacy. But I would like to deeply thank him anyway.’
Mrs. Allaway said she was at home in Tooting, South London on August 15th when she received a call from a man with an English accent. ‘He said Tom has been in a motorcycle accident and had been badly hurt. But he was being taken care of and I should get to Bangkok as soon as possible.
‘I got a ticket to Bangkok and then got another call to say I would be met at the airport. There was a car waiting for me to take me straight to the hospital when I got there on the 17th I was given all a rucksack with all Tom’s belongings. There was also about £100 in Thai money,
tom-moss-2’But there was nothing else in the rucksack. No photos documents, nothing to show what he had been doing in Thailand.
‘I do not know anything about the crash or how it happened I am only told that it involved another car and a truck or two trucks. Its all very vague.
‘Tom was a private person but he loved his sisters and would do anything for anybody. There was a Thai girl here, his girlfriend I think, when I first came but I could not understand anything,’ she said.
Currently Tom Moss, who had gone to Thailand on holiday five months ago and decided to stay, is paralysed from the neck down but there is some movement in his left side.
His jaw is wired and he is partially blind.
A British Embassy Travel Advisory warns all visitors to Thailand to ensure they are fully insured. The collective annual figure for motorcycle injuries is the biggest problem consular officials have to deal with.
