A family has launched a bid to raise enough money to get a scuba instructor home after he had a stroke and fell into a swimming pool in the USA. Gareth Crouth was visiting a friend in Kentucky when he almost drowned in the pool last week.
He is now seriously ill in hospital in Cincinnati. His health insurance has now expired, meaning his family faces a big bill to get him home to Northumberland.
Gareth, who moved to the north east aged 18 from South Africa with his family, was left with a fractured spine from the accident. He is also struggling to breathe on his own and a second stroke that happened after he got to hospital has complicated things further.
