BBC man woke from coma believing it was 1952 and he was American racing driver

A BBC presenter has told how he awoke from a coma following a devastating bicycle crash believing he was a 1950s American racing driver.

By PAUL CHRISTIAN

PUBLISHED: 15:57, Tue, Aug 16, 2016 | UPDATED: 16:40, Tue, Aug 16, 2016

BBC

BBC newsreader Will Glennon has revealed the extent of his injuries

Newsreader Will Glennon, 44, hit a Tesco delivery van in a horrific head-on crash and broke all his ribs, punctured a lung and suffered a massive head injury.  

The BBC Points West news anchor recalled how he was asked questions by medics as he came round from the medically-induced coma. 

WILL GLENNON

Will Glennon shared this shocking image of him after the horror head-on crash

"They tell me they asked me three questions: Where are you? What year is it? and what do you do for a living? I said I was in America, it was 1952 and I was a racing driver.

The crash actually happened two years ago, but Mr Glennon this week revealed his strange delusions, as he embarked on a fundraising drive for the medical facility that treated him. 

"Apparently I believed this was the case for some time, a week or so. At one point, because I thought I was in America, I looked around at all the medical equipment around me and said 'who's paying for this?'

"It took a while, and I can only now remember things from about the fourth week after the crash. It took the fog many months to clear, it was a very slow process.” 

During his first tentative stages of recovery M Glennon was transferred first to a regular ward out of intensive care, and then to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU) at Frenchay, in Bristol.

Now fully-recovered, Mr Glennon is set to run the Bristol Half Marathon, on September 25, to raise money for BIRU and hopes to achieve a target of £2,000. 

He said: “As a BBC newsreader and reporter in the West of England, I've covered lots of tragic stories, but now I've learnt first hand just how vital specialist units like this are.