Mum thanks supporters for helping her injured son get back home

BY JAMES TWOMEY
james@slpmedia.co.uk

The mother of an international gymnast who fell from a hotel balcony in Portugal and went into a coma says she is “so grateful” to everyone who helped get him home.

Oliver Hillier, 26, from Walworth Road in Southwark, fell from the second floor balcony of the hotel he was staying at in July this year and had brain surgery at a hospital on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Oliver’s family managed to raise £22,500 to get him home, and with the help of friends, family and colleagues, Oliver is now recovering in Croydon University Hospital.

Oliver’s mum, Mary Hillier, said: “I really want to say thank you to everyone who helped with fundraising, including the South London Press for putting it in the paper.

“Oliver can’t talk yet, but he’s taken a few steps and is sipping water.

There’s a long road ahead, but he’s young and fit. He can do it. All of us will be behind him.”

Oliver was a gymnast who trained at a Camberwell gym and competed internationally.

He decided to take time off from gymnastics to look after Mary and his family, and was on holiday with them to drive them around.

On September 17, Oliver was brought back from Madeira by air ambulance once he had woken up from his coma.

“We went straight to Croydon – straight to the intensive care unit,” said Mary.

“The helicopter was very cold but Oliver was fine and managed to stay awake. He’d not long had his skull put back on.”

Oliver’s family had arrived at their holiday hotel late in the evening and dropped their bags off quickly before going to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Oliver decided to stay up and chat with the locals while the others went to bed. But at around 4am the police knocked on Mary’s door to tell her that Oliver was in hospital after the fall.

Mary said: “The eight weeks in Madeira was hell. The hospital was lovely – they took really good care of Oliver and made him well enough to travel. I can’t thank them enough.

“It’s still early but he will probably never be the Oliver he was. Doctors say we might get 80 per cent back.

At the moment we’re trying to communicate. He’s getting frustrated he can’t communicate with us.

“I’m so grateful. Who knows how long we would have been there without the money.

“As a mum it’s very hard watching my son, but overall I’m confident and determined that he’ll get better. I won’t have it any other way.”