The family of a doting dad who died after a motorcycle accident while on holiday will pay tribute to him by hosting a coffee morning in his memory.
Steven Ferguson was on holiday riding motorbikes in the Isle of Man with his friends when he was involved in what has been described as a "freak accident" on August 31 last year. The 59-year-old, from Wideopen, was out riding with his friends when he crashed on the A36 Sloc Road and suffered leg and chest injuries.
The mother of his child, Sharon Potts, said: "He'd ridden bikes on the Isle of Man for the last few years. He wasn't racing, he was just out riding with his friends, and I've been told he wasn't driving fast. We think maybe there was something on the road, because his friends couldn't explain what happened, it was just a freak accident."
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Police officers closed the road and applied a tourniquet to Mr Ferguson, while the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) were dispatched to the scene. The paramedic and doctor team from GNAAS put Mr Ferguson into a medically induced coma, and administered a blood transfusion, before airlifting him to Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool.
Miss Potts, 50, said: "Without GNAAS we think he might have died at the scene. We got a phone call from the hospital suggesting we should come down to see him. They said if he woke up from this, he would be severely disabled."
His daughter, Lily Ferguson, 14, and his stepdaughter Lauren Potts, 30, travelled with Miss Potts from Newcastle to Liverpool and they were by Mr Ferguson's bedside for four days before he passed away.
Miss Potts said: "Steven was a very well-liked person and his funeral had about 300 people there. He worked at BT from when he was 18 up until a few years ago when he retired, and he also worked with gun dogs, so everybody knew him. He was very sociable; his dogs were his life and he doted on Lily."
Since Mr Ferguson passed away, Lily and her stepsister Lauren decided they wanted to host a coffee morning to raise money for GNAAS.
Miss Potts said: "It was a tragic accident, and Lily will never see her dad again, but she was so grateful to see him in hospital. That time in Liverpool was precious and without GNAAS I honestly don’t think it would have been possible to have those four days."
Since March 2022 GNAAS have been trialling a service to treat and transfer seriously injured or unwell patients by helicopter from the Isle of Man directly to the UK for emergency medical treatment.
This is in addition to operating across the North of England, responding to incidents in the North East, North Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria.
To support GNAAS, Lily and Lauren will be hosting a coffee morning to the public on Sunday, March 26, from 11am to 2pm at Fleet House, Brunswick Industrial Estate, Newcastle.
Miss Potts added: "I know Steven will be up there proud as punch knowing Lily and Lauren are doing this for him."
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