‘Rave for Maddi’ raises £5000 for British woman after balcony fall in Thailand

A charity fundraising event entitled ‘Rave for Maddi’ held in Coventry, England, raised 200,000 baht (£5000) to help the recovery of the young British woman who fell from a second-floor balcony in Koh Pha Ngan in southern Thailand on New Year’s Eve.

A GoFundMe appeal raised over 3 million baht (£73,500) from over 1,400 donors to pay for 21 year old Maddi Neale-Shankster’s transfer to the UK assisted by a team of specialist medical assistants.

After undergoing surgery in Thailand, Maddi returned to England around three weeks ago where she will undergo a lengthy rehabilitation process to recover from a fractured spine, two collapsed lungs and pierced liver. The goal is for Maddi to start walking again.

Nightclub promoters in Maddi’s hometown, Coventry, decided to throw a big party called ‘Rave for Maddi’ at the HMV EMPIRE on January 28 to raise funds to cover Maddi’s living costs until she can hopefully walk again and return to work.

The event was a booming success with 500 attendees and raised around £5000 to help Maddi in the immediate future.

In total, 35 local musicians and artists joined forces to put on the show which just shows how much the young beautician is supported by her local community.

Maddi flew to Thailand with her partner for a three-week dream holiday. But after ringing in the new year on the party island, things took a turn for the worse when she fell from a second-floor balcony.

To make matters worse, Maddi was pickpocketed earlier on in the night, said her mother Karen.

Karen flew out to Thailand to be by her side while she had fluid pumped out of her chest and underwent urgent back surgery.

Maddi took out travel insurance however it only covered 10,000 baht (£247), not £10,000, as she thought.

Yesterday, another young English tourist made headlines after getting into a serious accident on the same Thai island.

Emma Lewis, a 24 year old student from Basingstoke in Hampshire, was driving a moped through Koh Pha Ngan when she lost control and drove through a glass window. Glass shattered all over her leaving her in need of 56 stitches.

Luckily for Emma, her insurance paid out and reimbursed her 800,000 baht (£20,000) in medical bills.