I left work to travel home, then I woke up a fortnight later

Oliver Perry suffered a brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, and complete blindness and deafness on his left side after a crash on the M4

On July 21, 2021, Oliver Perry finished his shift at a Covid-19 testing site and got on his motorbike to head home. He does not remember what happened next, as he rode along the M4 in Neath Port Talbot, but it utterly changed his life.

Oliver, from Glynneath, was left with a brain injury, a stroke, epilepsy, and complete blindness and deafness on his left side.

After the 33-year-old crashed on the M4 near Jersey Marine, he woke up more than a fortnight later in Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales with his wife Lucy and her mother by his bedside.

He stayed in hospitals for more than three months, undergoing reconstructive surgeries and physiotherapy to learn to walk again, before he was able to go home in November that year. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter here.

While in hospital, Oliver said he was awake but “wasn’t really there”. His memory remains fuzzy due to the traumatic brain injury he sustained.

He has since been told by doctors that he had a stroke and that the “jerking movements” from it caused the retina in his left eye to detach and make him permanently blind in that eye. He also became deaf in his left ear.

Oliver was thankful that Lucy, also 33, took on caring responsibilities because he “couldn’t do anything independently”, including walking, eating, and drinking.

Speaking about the accident that changed his life, Oliver said: “I remember getting on my bike and coming home… then just waking up on August 5. That’s all I remember.”

South Wales Police said an investigation found the only vehicle involved was Oliver’s and no further action was considered necessary.

After initially being admitted to the University Hospital of Wales, Oliver was transferred to Swansea’s Morriston Hospital and then the brain injury unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

Oliver’s stroke caused a condition called Bell’s palsy – a lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face – which resulted in him needing his left eye “stitched shut”.

He said: “My face on the left side completely drooped. I had to eat and drink through a straw but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and I couldn’t keep my eye open.”

Oliver said he developed epilepsy due to the brain injury and now takes medication to manage this condition, as well as sustaining a shattered kneecap, while his left cheekbone needed a plate fitted.

After being released from hospital, Oliver said it was a “real struggle” and Lucy “literally had to do everything” for him while juggling work.

Oliver said: “I couldn’t dress myself or even tie my own shoes, and she had to wash me too.”

During his recovery Oliver started musical therapy to help improve his coordination. He joined a support group where he met other people with brain injuries.

He also continued regular physiotherapy to help regain his mobility but suffered frequent falls due to his sight loss.

Oliver said: “I was struggling to get about and I was always bumping into things. I was falling off curbs and steps, especially on my left-hand side.

“I couldn’t see anything coming, so I’d walk across the road, not seeing a car coming from my left.”

Despite making progress with his mobility in the years since his accident, Oliver said he was “constantly back and forth to the hospital” due to regularly falling over.

It was not until Oliver reached out to the Guide Dogs charity and got his dog Walter last November that he went from being “cooped up in the house” whenever his wife was out to being able to “get out and do stuff” independently.

It was a conversation with a fellow blind person in his brain injury support group in 2021 that led Oliver to ask about getting a guide dog.

Oliver said: “I phoned them up and I asked if I qualified for any kind of help or for a guide dog and they said ‘yes’. They put me on the waiting list and four years later I got Walter.”

Oliver said his first impression of Walter, a two-year-old Labrador, was that he was “very boisterous” and “a bit cheeky”.

He added: “Walter comes with me everywhere I go. I’ve had absolutely zero trips because Walt was always there to stop me from falling but he’s not just my eyes, he’s my support dog too.

“He’s funny, he likes to do this thing that we call wormy worms, where he rolls onto his back and he just wriggles back and forth.

“He’s absolutely gorgeous, but one time it took us three-and-a-half hours to do a weekly shop because of everyone stopping to say hello to him. He just loves people.”

When it comes to crossing a road now, Walter will “put his whole body” in front of Oliver as if to say “stop, there’s a car coming”, as well as showing him where steps are so he doesn’t trip over, he added.

With help from Walter, Oliver has been able to meet up with friends without needing Lucy to help him. He has been able to enjoy bowling, playing pool, and even just going grocery shopping or for breakfast.

Oliver said: “Guide dogs change people’s lives. Walter isn’t just my guide – he’s my left eye, my best friend, and my freedom.”

To find out more about Guide Dogs’ Sponsor a Puppy initiative and to learn how to donate, visit their website here: www.guidedogs.org.uk/puppy.