A farmer who nearly died after being gored by his own bull has thanked the medics who saved his life.

Ian McLean shook hands with Dr Matt Gunning and Kent Air Ambulance pilot Pete Tucker when he met them at the charity’s headquarters in Marden.

He also handed over a cheque for £3,025 to help pay for the running of the service.

Had it not been for an emergency procedure carried out at the scene by the doctor, and the pilot flying him to the Royal London Hospital so quickly, Mr McLean would have died.

The 62-year-old suffered 16 broken ribs, a cracked vertebra in his neck, a collapsed pleura (lining to the thoracic wall) and cuts to his head when he was attacked at his farm in St Mary Hoo, near Rochester.

He said: “I’m very grateful for what they did. I was conscious the whole time and I was aware of what they were doing.

“They told me that if they hadn’t done what they did I would have been 'brown bread’.

“The work Kent Air Ambulance does is excellent and without fund-raising events or donations they couldn’t carry on. They need donations more than ever at the moment with the cost of fuel going up.”

A cheque for £3,025 was presented by a representative of the Maidstone and District Fat Stock Show Association, of which Mr McLean is a member.