Ashley Streete has just celebrated his 22nd birthday quietly at home.

He would much rather have gone out on the town for a laugh with his mates but knows it could easily have been fatal.

It was 17 months ago when we carried a front page story about Ashley’s close-shave with death – a day which has shaped the rest of his life.

IT was in June last year when Ashley was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital after falling 15ft to the ground while jumping from the sea wall at Sheerness.

He was leaping the six-feet from the wall on to the roof of an ice cream kiosk in Beach Street when he fell – landing on his head and in a coma.

He had already twice made the jump successfully but on the third attempt the thin roof sprung upwards and he lost his footing.

As medics attempted to bring him out of his coma, he believed he was already dead.

Ashley had been kept in the coma for a week to allow time for the swelling to his brain to go down and for his body to recover.

He lost the thin bone at the front side of his skull and there was only a thin membrane covering his brain. The swelling died down in six months and then he had a titanium plate inserted.

He also broke his jaw in the fall and had to have a tracheotomy to help him breathe.

He said: “I still suffer from severe headaches and my head can be very hot with my body feeling very cold.

“I could have another operation but I just could not stand the pain - and I may end up in a wheelchair if anything goes wrong so I just do not want to take the risk.

“I cannot work for the rest of my life because it would be just too dangerous. A slight knock could kill me – even if I got hit in the head with something as light as a tennis ball.”

For the full story, don’t miss next week’s Times Guardian