The Road Traffic Accident That Changed Everything

Our Story

Superior Healthcare was founded in 2006 by Stewart Thorp, his father Charles and Sarah Richards in response to their experience of caring for Stewart’s brother and Charles’ son, Alex, who has an acquired brain injury.

Alex was knocked from his bicycle whilst cycling on a country lane in 2001, by a motorist who had been using his mobile phone at the time of impact.

Although sustaining only minor physical injuries, Alex suffered what proved to be a catastrophic blow to his head.

Alex was rapidly transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at King’s College Hospital, London, where he spent four weeks on life support.  During a stay on the PICU and Lion Ward that would last almost three months, Alex had a tracheostomy and his breathing was managed by a ventilator.  Whilst he was weaned from his ventilator, he continued to be fed via a gastrostomy tube well after his transfer to the Children’s Head Injury Service, based at Chailey Heritage in East Sussex.

During a year-long stay at Chailey, Alex would learn to walk and talk again with the support of a team of support workers, nurses and healthcare professionals including physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and neurologists whilst a plan was made for his return to the family home.

It was then that Charles and Stewart met Sarah Richards, the Registered Nurse who was tasked to recruit the team that would support Alex at home.

In ensuing years, Charles, Stewart and Sarah worked alongside a team of healthcare professionals as well as solicitors and case managers to support Alex’s continued rehabilitation including his return to education and participation at Headway – an independent charity working to provide social rehabilitation to adults with an acquired brain injury.

From their personal experience, Charles and Stewart identified the importance of a specialised care service that would bridge the gap between independent care providers and national organisations and in 2006, Superior Healthcare was founded with the objective of providing specialised services for people who have complex and long term health needs.

Since then, we have worked with children, young people, adults and their families to provide twenty-four hour and respite care, which supports people during rehabilitation or to maintain their health, as well as providing a dignified service for people approaching the end of their lives.

At Superior Healthcare, providing a high-quality service is a personal goal.