A TEENAGE motorcyclist who suffered a horrific head injury while racing in Glasgow has raised funds for the hospital which saved his life.

Sam Norris was just 15 years old when he travelled to Glasgow from his home in Linton in order to compete at the British Youth Championships in Ashfield Stadium.

His horrified dad watched from the stands as Sam was thrown from his bike during one of the laps.

Seconds later another rider travelling at 50mph smashed into the cyclists as he lay on the track – leaving him in a coma for five days.

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He was rushed to Glasgow’s Royal Children’s Hospital where his heartbroken family waited at his bedside.

His doting mum Claire said: “My husband, unfortunately, witnessed the whole thing.

“I thought I was getting the call to say he had won. I definitely wasn’t expecting that, and it was horrible.

“I’m lucky I have older children and they got me on the first flight from Stansted so, I was with Sam by 11pm that night.”

Sam spent 10 days at the Govan hospital before he was well enough to be transferred to a facility closer to home, where he began the long process of regaining his ability to walk and talk, however, his fragility meant he needed medical assistance to begin his journey home.

Thankfully, Scotstar Paediatric Retrieval Service – a specialist transport facility for patients – stepped in to move Sam and Claire to Cambridge.

Glasgow Times:

Sam moments before his accident on the Glasgow track

Sam began a gruelling physiotherapy regime while still undergoing his schoolwork all with two goals in mind: getting back on his bike and saying thank you to the Glasgow hospital and charity which helped save his life.

“He kept saying even through his physio ‘I want to work on this hand because it’s my clutch hand’,” Claire said.

“It’s his dream and you can’t take that dream away from anyone although it does make you a bit nervous.

“He’s not quite there yet but he’s getting back to his usual self.”

Prior to the national lockdown in March, Sam and his family travelled back to Glasgow to visit the hospital where he was saved and the charity which helped safely bring him home.

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While here they made an emotional return to the site where his accident occurred in a bid to gain some much-needed closure.

The now 17-year-old is in college but is hopeful to return to the city one day and ride again at the Saracen Park track.

Claire said: “The accident was his first time in Glasgow but we came back just before he finished his rehab and we went to the hospital to say ‘thank you’ and went back to where it all happened.

“He needed that closure because he had no memory of anything. It was important for us as a family. “ After spending the last two years recovering, Sam returned to competitive racing but with a slight difference, this time competing on oval grasstracks.

On August 15, a grasstrack meeting was held in Ugley near Stansted dubbed Super Sam’s Summer Spectular where any profits made were going to be divided equally to the charities and organisations which helped Sam in 2019.

He is now donating £450 to Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital Charity and another £450 to Scotstar, which were both “paramount in Sam’s survival and as a family we will always be eternally grateful”.

Claire said: “We, personally, feel he is the way he is because of that team. If he had been in a different hospital, we don’t know how it would have went.

“He really is a miracle and we’re just so grateful to the teams there.

“People don’t know all these wonderful places unless you’ve been there yourself. I watched a TV programme about Scotstar but I never thought they would fly me and Sam.”

The family is now focusing on helping Sam with his continued recovery and help him return to his love of speedway racing.

“It’s always been his thing from when he was tiny,” Claire added.

“When we were at the hospital and he was in his coma we were saying ‘you’ve got to get through this so you can get back on your bike’.

“It’s what’s motivated him to get better and we’re behind him. I think what he would love to do is race again at the track in Glasgow..”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service, which Scotstar falls under, has wished Sam well in his journey.

He said: “It’s great to hear Sam is doing well and we are truly grateful for the donation.

“Our teams at ScotSTAR, alongside the rest of the Scottish Ambulance Service, have been working tirelessly over the last 18 months and gestures such as this are greatly appreciated by the whole service.

“We wish Sam all the best as he continues his recovery.”