A polar explorer left seriously injured following a freak snowstorm that killed one friend and left another fighting for life has spoken from his hospital bed to say he hopes to return home soon.
Andy Norman, 33, is being treated in Iceland for severe frostbite after he was airlifted from Greenland following the accident on Sunday. Phil Goodeve-Docker died on the charity expedition and Roan Hackney was left in a coma.
Mr Norman’s friend Georgina Lilley said he had been given morphine after being left in “agony”.
She said: “I spoke to him last night and he was in a lot of pain. He had asked them to lower his morphine dosage.
“It’s very typical of him because he is very fit and health conscious. I expect he will recover quicker than most and might even be back in a week or so. He just wants to get home but so far we don’t know for sure when that’s going to happen. His parents have flown out to Iceland to be with him while he recovers.”
Mr Norman, from Bracknell Forest near Ascot, and fellow survivor Mr Hackney, from New Cross, were transferred to a hospital in Iceland after being discharged from intensive care in Greenland on Monday night.
Mr Norman’s parents Jean and Terry were today holding a bedside vigil for their son.
Mr Hackney’s friend Kiran Ghattaura, 34, a senior communications analyst from Southall, said: “I am really concerned about Roan.
“I just want to know that he is going to get through this. He is a great guy. He is an amazing bloke and Phil had the utmost respect for him and that’s part of the reason he wanted to go on the expedition.”
The three friends had been attempting a 370-mile unsupported challenge across Greenland. It is thought their tent was blown into a glacier.
Mr Goodeve-Docker, from Ealing, who ran the Purple Cactus comedy agency, is thought to have frozen to death when temperatures plunged to minus 35C.
