A BIRTHDAY party for a man who nearly died alongside his friend Matthew Bromley has raised £400 for the air ambulance and the hospital which saved his life.

Ben Corper, 31, of Station Road, Westbury, was a passenger in the car which crashed near Chilcompton, last May. His friend and colleague, rising basketball star Matthew Bromley, died later in hospital.

Mr Corper, who has a seven-year-old daughter Bethany, spent three weeks in intensive care at the RUH, Bath, and was later transferred to the head injuries unit at the Mineral Hospital, Bath. He is still recovering, but was able to celebrate his birthday at a party held in the Hunter's Moon, Warminster, on Saturday.

Guests were asked to give a £1 donation on the door and there was also a raffle with the proceeds going to the Somerset Air Ambulance and the Mineral Hospital.

At the time of the party news of Mr Bromley's stepfather Geoffrey Crucefix's death two days earlier had not reached the Corpers.

Mr Corper said: "I thought I'd combine celebrating the milestone of getting to my birthday and raising money to split between the air ambulance and the hospital.

"I'm very grateful to the air ambulance because the crash was in the middle of nowhere and if I'd had to go by road it would have taken too long to get to Bath."

After the accident doctors told Mr Corper's parents and his wife Gillian he was unlikely to live more than about three days. But after spending two weeks in a coma he slowly began to recover. "My first memory of it is from two months afterwards," said Mr Corper, who works as a ripspeed specialist for Halfords in Bradley Road, Trowbridge, with Mr Bromley.

Gillian, 25, said: "It was a very worrying time so it was great to see him enjoy the party."