£1,400 donated for man injured in Bonne Nuit cliff fall

Tuesday 22 May 2018

Islanders have been giving generously to help fund the travel and accommodation of the daughters of a 57-year-old worker who fell 80 feet down the cliffs at Bonne Nuit, hurting his head, back and leg.

Ferdinando Moniz Assuncao, was transferred to Southampton last Thursday where he remains in intensive care in a stable condition.

Mr Assuncao's accident prompted a joint operation involving more than 30 staff from the Emergency Services.

Fire fighters arrived just after 09:00 and lowered a paramedic down to him using ropes, to assess his injuries.

Because of Mr Assuncao's condition, they had to lower him on down to Bonne Nuit, where the Fire Service's Inshore Rescue boat, and the RNLI were waiting to take him to the slip. Mr Assuncao was then transfered to Southampton General Hospital on Thursday. 

#greenwatch are currently at an incident where someone has fallen onto the rocks below. Using our rope rescue equipment & Inshore Rescue Boat we are working with the paramedic’s & RNLI, to get the casualty to safety. pic.twitter.com/DOGovsokHa

— Jersey Fire & Rescue (@JsyFire) May 16, 2018

Both the Police and Health and Safety officials are investigating the circumstances of the incident. 

Pictured: Southampton General Hospital where Mr Assuncao is currently in intensive care. (Google Maps)

Shortly after Ferdinando's transfer, Beth Kilgour started a crowdfunding page to help raise funds to allow his two daughters "to travel to and from the UK to support their father at this very difficult time."

A longtime friend of one of Ferdinando's daughters, she explained: "I started the page because I think sometimes people don't have lots of money saved especially when they have children. Because it happened so unexpectedly I didn't want my friend to have the financial stress on top of worrying about her dad."

"When she found out about the page, she cried, bless her. She said it was the nicest thing anyone had done for her. She and her sister are overwhelmed by the generosity of people, some of which don't even know their dad."

On the crowdfunding page, Ms Kilgour described Ferdinando as a hard working man who "put his life in danger as he went about his daily employment ... carrying out some gardening work on Bonne Nuit cliffs when he unfortunately fell several feet." She also shared concerns that he might unfortunately be paralysed from the waist down as a result of his injuries. 

Ms Kilgour hopes that as Ferdinando recovers in hospital, the "strong Jersey community" can come together to raise funds. "Jersey is amazing at times like these, everyone comes together and are so lovely. I can't believe how generous everyone has been!"