
Cwmbran man stuck in Thai hospital for six weeks returns to Wales!
Doctors have now given him the green light, and he returned home yesterday on July 20.
Ashton Jones from Cwmbran has now returned to the UK (Image: NQ) Reacting to the news childhood friend Angela Roden Shepherd 50, said: 'It's so heartwarming to say he'll be home and on British soil!'
On May 30, Ashton and his lifelong friend flew to Bangkok for a lad's holiday.
Tragically, just five days into the trip, his family received the devastating news that Ashton had gone missing.
He was later found in Chonburi Hospital, where he'd undergone extensive brain surgery.
Investigations are being carried out by the Thai authorities, and it is still unclear what led to his admittance.
Unfortunately, Ashton didn't have travel insurance, and his family were unable to shoulder the financial cost alone.
Ashton Jones fighting for his life in a Thai hospital (Image: NQ) Angela has been a shoulder for Ashton's family to lean on.
She helped set up a GoFundMe to pay for Ashston's medical expenses. Overall, a staggering £31,960 was raised.
In an emotional video online Angela shared the happy news.
She said: 'We grew up together which is why I've been doing everything I've been doing. I've got good news Ashton is flying home today!
'He's on his way home he'll land in Heathrow tomorrow. He's going to be very close to home so happy days, Ashton is on his way home!'
Angela Roden Shepherd Ashston's childhood friend who helped set up a GoFundMe (Image: NQ) Angela has been overwhelmed by the community support.
She said: 'I'm going to take this opportunity now to thank each and every one of you who donated times are hard at the moment and you have been absolutely phenomenal the support I've had has been amazing I'm still gobsmacked now.'
'Even just asking me how is Ashton doing? What's the news what's the latest?'
At one point Ashton had a DNR in place now he is recovering and getting stronger each day.
The GoFundMe has officially been closed, and Ashton is currently undergoing medical treatment in the UK.
His story has been a miraculous feat.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
After losing my nine-year-old daughter to epilepsy, my son nearly died when he was beaten up in savage street attack - but the case has been DROPPED by CPS
A grieving mother whose nine-year-old daughter died from epilepsy claims she nearly lost her son after he was violently kicked in the head by a group of thugs. British-born Arabella Scanlan, who lives in Ireland, claims three men attacked her son Harry 'for his Irish accent' in March 2022 while he was walking with a friend in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Harry was rushed into intensive care after the thugs 'used his head as a football' -knocking out his teeth, 'obliterating' his nose, breaking his cheekbone and kicking his jaw and shoulder so badly they have been left permanently dislocated. As a result of his injuries, 27-year-old Harry can never fulfil his dream of being a Royal Marine like his grandfather. The family have been desperately trying to get the case to go to trial, but it was officially thrown out by the CPS this month after Harry couldn't attend a court date due to a serious operation on his shattered shoulder. The alleged attack came just three years after Ms Scanlan lost her nine-year-old daughter Brianna to Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) - a rare condition affecting around 1 in 1,000 people with epilepsy every year. The mother fears she could now lose a second child as a 'broken' Harry has been left 'suicidal' over his injuries and the lack of justice. 'I've already lost one child - I can't lose another. Harry has lost all hope. All he wanted to do was be a Royal Marine like his grandad. That will never happen,' Ms Scanlan told MailOnline. 'I'm a glass half full kind of person, but of recent times my glass is not even near half full because I'm worried sick about Harry. 'We've had nothing of any help. I love him so much, he's a young gentleman, and any British citizen would be proud to call him a British person, or an Irish British person.' The mother added: 'To have three English scumbags do this to an absolute gentleman, and get no comeback for it, the judicial system [...] are disgusting.' Harry was allegedly walking along a main road in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, with a female friend when he was attacked from behind by three men. He was treated repeatedly 'as a football', his mother claimed, leaving him with injuries so severe he has been left with a permanently dislocated jaw and shoulder. At the time, Ms Scanlan was holding a memorial race to raise money for SUDEP following the death of her daughter Brianna in 2019. 'I actually had to detach - I said is he going to die? Do I need to leave now?,' she said. The case was set to go to court on several different occasions, the family claims, but kept being postponed due to factors such as a lack of court availability and the defendants not being available. According to his mother, Harry was supposed to attend court on June 9, but when he rang three days beforehand to check what time be must arrive, it turned out the hearing had been cancelled due to a lack of court availability. The 27-year-old then warned the courts he was due to undergo serious surgery on his shoulder - 'shattered' from the ordeal - on July 17, requesting not to have the trial rearranged to that month. Harry provided a note from his GP to confirm this, his mother said. Weeks later, Harry received a call saying he would need to be in court the following Monday, July 14, his mother said - the same week as his major surgery. 'Harry said there's no chance he could be there as he was preparing to be operated on that week,' Ms Scanlan said. He was allegedly then told that if he didn't show up to court that Monday, the case could be thrown out. 'He took this really badly and disappeared for a few hours and I actually thought he wasn't going to be coming home,' his mother said. 'Harry is one of these really lovely young men who would stop and give you his seat and open the door for you. He's a lovely, lovely guy. 'Harry's mental health now is now at an all-time low. He now has nothing. He has no job, he's spent all his savings, he can never go back into the Marines because he is so badly beaten up.' Due to Harry's 'suicidal' thoughts, his mother claimed the CPS agreed that if he verbally consented to his mental health not being well enough to attend court, his case would still be able to go to trial. However, Harry could not get a doctor's note over the weekend in time for the trial on the Monday. The 27-year-old received a letter from the CPS on Tuesday, confirming his case had been officially dropped. 'He's still paying for this years on, in pain and in money. He's gone through all his savings, he can't work,' his mother said. After receiving the letter informing him the CPS had dropped the case, Harry told MailOnline: 'I'm broken to this day, and these guys are now getting away with it. I've given everything, it's not good enough, it's negligence on every level.' He added: 'I can't go back into the Marines because of this, I can't work with horses because of this, I've lost multiple jobs because of this.' A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: 'We applied to the court to adjourn the trial, but our application was declined by the judge. 'We appreciate the complainant is disappointed with the outcome, but the CPS did everything we legally could to ensure a trial could take place.'


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Yvette Cooper condemns Nigel Farage's criticisms of police
Yvette Cooper has condemned Reform UK for criticising the policing of protests outside a hotel for asylum seekers. The home secretary said officers deserved public support instead because they kept the country safe. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, called for Ben-Julian Harrington, the chief constable of Essex, to resign after his force escorted anti-fascist protesters through a crowd of people demonstrating against migrants. But Cooper said: 'The police do a really important job across our country keeping people safe. It is really important frankly that people support our police rather than just attacking them continually. As we have seen, Reform is one day calling for chief constables to resign, the next it is attacking women police officers who are out on our streets every single day of the week.' Farage has repeatedly weighed into the debate about the Epping migrant hotel and said earlier this week: 'Hard-left groups, Stand Up To Racism and Antifa, were given the red carpet treatment by Essex police, with the force literally escorting and bussing masked thugs to and from the protest. They have been caught redhanded helping to light the fuse that led to violence.' Harrington said Reform's claims were 'categorically wrong' and that officers had organised a cordon around activists exercising their right to protest. Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent for the Metropolitan police, said Farage's claims were wrong and he should correct the public record amid rising tensions. 'British values mean if a politician makes a mistake, they put their hand up and acknowledge it. He knows it is false,' Babu said. Police arrested 16 people after a heated protest last week outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where another demonstration was held on Thursday evening. Hundreds of protesters, including many women and children, began marching from Epping town centre to the hotel at around 6pm in heavy rain. A ramped-up police operation included fences and a ban on the wearing of facial coverings. Activists from the far-right Homeland group were behind an Epping Says No! Facebook group that has been behind much of the promotion of the protests. Members of Patriotic Alternative and White Vanguard have also been involved. While politicians have largely stayed away from the protest, two Reform councillors were present outside the Epping hotel last week, including James Regan who claimed in an interview that 'they're trying to dilute the Englishness out of us'. The Guardian also found evidence that a Reform official shared a platform in Epping with an agitator from Homeland. In last year's summer riots, Keir Starmer, the prime minister, called out 'far-right thuggery' and pledged to bring those involved to justice. However, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said on Thursday that many of the Epping protesters were 'upset for legitimate reasons'. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, told the cabinet earlier this week that immigration and deprivation were among the main factors causing public disenchantment with politicians. There is already a taskforce on community cohesion, informed by experts and officials, while a £1.5bn 'plan for neighbourhoods' aims to invest in 75 deprived areas over the next decade. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Some Labour MPs are concerned that political and media language about the UK being on the brink of social unrest might be raising tensions rather than encouraging cohesion. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said on Thursday that if people were 'unsettled by the political and press debate around immigration, law and order, the idea that there could be race riots again, you are completely right to be concerned because this discussion in itself is raising fear and uncertainty and tension'. She added: 'It is dividing us and feeding this myth that Britain is a nation that cannot manage diversity rather than one that draws strength from it.' Brendan Cox, whose wife, Jo, a Labour MP, was murdered by a far-right extremist, said the UK needed a longer-term strategy on social cohesion. 'There is a set of local concerns around this in Epping and it's also true that these are being co-opted and used by elements of the far right,' said Cox, who is the convener of an independent commission on community. 'It's no surprise that happens when there are these kind of festering legitimate concerns and successive governments are seen to not act on those. But the broad point I'd make is that we've published a report about there being a tinderbox … and I think what's really clear is that we don't really have any long-term cohesion strategy at all.' Nick Lowles, of the Hope not Hate campaign group, said: 'We are concerned that policing has not caught up with the new post-organisation nature of the far right, where individuals can emerge and play a role on social media and inciting or directing violence, without ever being a member of a far-right organisation.' David Blunkett, the Labour peer and former home secretary, said policing unrest fuelled by the far right was always difficult but the key was 'specialist dog-trained police units and an online understanding of what they are doing' – as well as the Home Office involving MI5 at an early stage. The Epping protest was sparked by the charging of Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a 38-year-old asylum seeker, with sexual assault over allegedly trying to kiss a girl of 14. He denied the charge at Chelmsford magistrates court and will stand trial next month. A Reform official would not answer questions about sharing a platform with the far right or about Cooper's claims that the party should back the police. Instead the spokesperson said the Guardian 'cares more about attacking Reform UK than defending young girls who are being abused by illegal boat migrants'.


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Jailed traders mount bid to quash conviction after Supreme Court ruling
Four traders who were jailed for rate-rigging are to appeal their convictions after the Supreme Court quashed similar charges in a landmark case. Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef and Christian Bittar are all seeking acquittal on appeal, lawyers for the four men said. It follows the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, two former investment bank traders, on charges of rigging Libor and Euribor respectively. The pair were found to have not received a fair trial because of how the jury was directed. The convictions came after an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the aftermath of the financial crisis into claims that traders were manipulating key interest rate benchmarks by submitting false information to the market. Overall, the case led to nine convictions for fraud, with two traders pleading guilty and the rest found guilty by juries. Merchant and Mathew were ex-Barclays traders found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in 2016 after a three-month trial at Southwark Crown Court. The judge ruled that the pair had conspired to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, known as Libor, which was once used to price more than £270tn of financial products globally. Mathew was given a four-year sentence, while Merchant was given a six and a half years. Merchant, who was born in India, renounced his British citizenship and was deported in 2018. Moryoussef, also an ex-Barclays trader, and Christian Bittar, who formerly worked for Deutsche Bank, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in relation to the euro interbank offered rate, known in the City as Euribor. Moryoussef was sentenced in 2018 to eight years in jail, with the judge saying: 'Greed was clearly his principal motivation. Although his income was more than generous by anyone's standards, he thought he deserved more.' Bittar was sentenced to five years and four months. On Thursday night, a lawyer representing the group said: 'Following the Supreme Court's landmark decision yesterday to quash the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, all four of our clients now intend to appeal against their convictions.' Mr Hayes, who served five and a half years in prison for fraud, said after the Supreme Court ruling that all those jailed on similar charges to his should have their convictions overturned. The SFO, which was contacted for comment, said earlier this week: 'We have considered this judgment and the full circumstances carefully and determined it would not be in the public interest for us to seek a retrial.'