Southsea man battles back from major brain injury to be awarded Masters degree

Ryan Penfold, 40, saw his life turned upside down on January 26, 2016 after being involved in a serious car accident in Cornwall. After the three-car-collision on the A30 he was transferred to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth where he had life-saving surgery on a serious bleed on the brain and was placed into an induced coma.

His parents were told if he survived he could be left with serious brain damage.

Ryan, who had been driving back to Cornwall from Durham, said: ‘I can’t remember anything about the accident itself but I remember the weather leading up to it was very bad.

‘The first thing I remember about waking up was the echo of my mother saying I’d been involved in an accident – she wasn’t there but I think I must have remembered it from what she’d been saying at my bedside.

‘I’ve since been told my life was on the line and they told my mother, Carole, there was a 50/50 chance of serious brain damage.’

After a couple of weeks in intensive care, Ryan was transferred to Queen Alexandra Hospital to be closer to his family.

‘My memory was badly affected and I remember the nurses kept asking me what their names were,’ said Ryan.

SEE ALSO: Police use battering ram to get into Gosport home to reach woman needing hospital treatment

After being discharged in March 2016, Ryan went to live with his parents. After a career as a software engineer, he was unsure if he would be able to ‘return to what I was’.

‘I just wasn’t able to process things as quickly. I was sat in my parent’s garden thinking about what the future held – whether I could work again,’ he said.

After a pep talk from a friend he thought about ‘stacking shelves in Asda’ but after seeing a different job advert with the supermarket giant he decided to apply.

‘I got the job as the web designer with Asda and this year I’ve been awarded a Masters degree in software engineering from the University of Leicester,’ added Ryan.

Ryan, who also abseiled down the Spinnaker Tower, hopes his story can act as an inspiration to others.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.