Community raises more than £600 for Bridport's Liam Justice

Liam Justice, of Bridport, is currently in Southampton Hospital under sedation after suffering from up to three blood clots to his main artery on Saturday, December 30.

After the 25-year-old had a seizure during a brain scan, doctors carried out emergency surgery on him to remove dangerous clots.

Liam's mother Ellison said the problem started from a headache in the morning.

She said: “He was saying that his head hurt, which is normal as he does suffer from migraines, but he didn’t feel well enough to go into work.

“I was at work for four hours and when I came back around quarter past two, he wasn’t making sense in what he was saying and seemed agitated. I’ve never experienced anything like that.

“We knew then that something was wrong and took him to Bridport Community Hospital before going to Dorchester A&E, which is where he had a seizure during a brain scan,” she added.

Liam was then rushed to Southampton Hospital, where doctors found three clots in his main arteries and performed keyhole surgery.

Following the surgery, he was left with two clots - either side of his head which doctors said was rare and had only seen two other cases in the hospital of the same incident.

Liam has also been through blood tests after doctors suspect him to be suffering from an autoimmune condition or disease. 

“When we arrived, doctors told us to prepare for the worst,” Ellison said, “But things are moving on a bit and we’re hoping for more prognosis soon.”

She said that the situation was ‘totally new’ to the family, and that New Year’s weekend was the last thing on their minds.

She said: “New Year’s Eve didn’t exist, it was nothing to us. We haven’t been allowed to wake him up, because if we do it too fast it could be dangerous. It’s like he’s asleep but slightly awake.

“We forgot about New Year’s, we went outside to ask what all the fireworks were about.”

Liam also suffers from SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) and vertigo, and so helps out as a volunteer for a Weldmar hospice care charity shop in Bridport.

Ellison said: “Bless his heart he helps two days a week down the charity shop in town to get more confidence and it was booming.”

She added that Liam is on his way to completing his Level 2 customer service course to benefit his work and loves history and being creative - often making different flavoured mead drinks to try.

Harvey Burton, Liam’s best friend who also lives in Bridport, wanted to help the family in their time of need.

The two became inseparable as friends after Harvey moved back to Bridport 10 years ago after living in Spain and said Liam has been ‘like a rock’ for him since settling back down in the country during his GCSEs.

Harvey set up the GoFundMe page for the family to help with travel costs.

He said: “I set it up because they’re basically bleeding money having to pay for accommodation, fuel going to and from the hospital and that’s really expensive at the minute.

“Essentially, I want to raise some funds to take even the smallest amount of pressure and stress off the family so they can focus on helping him get better and be there for him,” he added.

Currently, Harvey has raised £645 for the family since Monday, January 1, which has taken the family back.

Ellison said: “I’m overwhelmed that there’s so much love out there for Liam, thank you to everyone- he’s going to be so overwhelmed too when he sees the support.”

Harvey and Liam’s other friend, Robin, have also put together a playlist for him of music and favourite pop culture scenes whilst he is sedated to ‘keep in touch’ with their friend.

To find out more about the cause and to donate to Mr Burton’s GoFundMe, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/7gd8c8-helping-a-dear-friend-in-need