Paul and Gill Mackrill

[Brendan]

Sad news I'm afraid, via Brendan and Heather Mackrill

On Monday 10th September, Paul and Gillian Mackrill, were involved in a serious cycling accident.
They were on holiday in the South of France (Lozern), when they were caught on a narrow lane by a car driving too quick.
Gillian died on the spot, and has been taken to a mortuary in Mende (Southern France).
Paul sustained serious injury and is currently in hospital in Nimes. He is badly injured but stable.
He has had two rounds of surgery to fix his face and left arm and is very tired as a result. He has fractured his upper jaw and nose, and has crushed a large number of bones in his left hand.  He is fully aware of what is happening but like all of us the full extent hasn't sunk in.

We still don't know when he will be able to leave the hospital but we are hoping some time next week. We are making plans to have Gill brought back to the UK. We will let people know as we finalize plans

 

[Brendan]

Further update today

To All,

Please pass this on to others who may wish to hear.


We are holding together and all the messages of support we keep receiving are helping immensely.


Paul is making steady progress and we are hoping he will be released in the next few days. He was out walking the local fitness parcour yesterday (impossible to keep him bed bound).
They still have some concerns about his index finger as the bones have been very badly crushed. And they will be taking a second look at his jaws in the next few days.


We are still making arrangements for Gill. Unfortunately I still can't give people any dates because we are waiting to see how Paul recovers, but we are looking at doing a service in France (Lans-en-Vercors) followed by a second service in England (near Kirby-Lonsdale) where she will eventually be buried.


Thanks again for all your offers of support.
Hope to see you all out in the hills and underground being dragged along by Paul as we try and get him back up to speed again


Brendan & Heather

 

[ianball11]

Im sorry to hear this Brendan, such a terrible thing.

 

[Brendan]

I should probably have pointed out that I am Brendan Sloan, not Brendan Mackrill - I'm just reposting his emails as Paul particularly is well known in the caving community.

 

[ianball11]

haha, been a while since we were caving in Wales at Checc together,

Not knowing those involved doesn't make reading of fatal cycling accidents any easier 

 

[Mike Hopley]

Desperately sad news. Paul (and his family) must be devasted.

Best wishes for a good recovery. He's incredibly fit, which will likely help.