A MOTORCYCLIST who planned a 2,500-mile rally to raise thousands of pounds for wounded soldiers broke both his legs in a road accident just days before setting off.

Phil Harpley, 47, from Eynsham, was set to join seven colleagues from Cowley’s Harley Davidson headquarters on a three-day tour to the most extreme points of Britain, raising funds for Help for Heroes along the way.

He was due to set off today.

But just 16 days before the start, he was thrown off his bike after colliding with a car on the A40.

The father-of-two woke up at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital to be told both his legs were broken and he faced months of rehabilitation before he could walk normally again.

Now his fellow bikers are set to complete the challenge without him, while he keeps the group’s website up to date from his hospital bed.

He said: “I’m absolutely gutted and devastated.

“I’ve been planning it since last September and it has been hard work.

“There’s been a lot of heartache and a lot of ups and downs over it, and this one is the final nail.

“It was a normal Wednesday morning riding to work, and then the next thing I remember is waking up in hospital with a lot of stitches.

“Essentially I’m a bit of a mess below my waist.

“It could have been worse, and I could have been going faster.”

Mr Harpley, a former RAF chef, came up with the idea of the rally while watching a repatriation ceremony of soldiers’ bodies from Afghanistan on television.

Over the months, he and his colleagues planned the tour of Britain going to the most northerly, southerly, easterly and westerly points of the island.

They will be raising money for the military rehabilitation centre at Headley Court, which nurses wounded soldiers back to fitness.

He said: “I will still be doing my bit from hospital, but it won’t be the same.

“The others are disappointed as well but still absolutely determined.

“One was talking about cancelling, and I said: ‘Don’t you dare’.”

Mr Harpley said he would plan an alternative fundraising venture for Help for Heroes when he was discharged from hospital.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk To sponsor the Harley Davidson team’s Help for Heroes Britain rally challenge, visit the website all4sendurance.co.uk