Sultan of Brunei pays for Terry Dukes' flight home

A Hampshire man who was seriously injured in Borneo is to be flown home after the Sultan of Brunei offered to pay for his transport, his family said.

Terry Dukes, a professional diver, has undergone five operations after being found with a serious head injury, but remains in a critical condition.

His family has been unable to pay for his repatriation flight.

But his cousin said she wrote to the sultan and he agreed to cover the transport bill.

Mr Dukes has lived in Borneo for more than 20 years and worked as a diver and marine biologist mapping uncharted shipwrecks.

He was found by his girlfriend collapsed in the road with a head injury in January.

His cousin Carole Jahme said despite undergoing numerous operations at the Ripas Hospital, Brunei, he was still partially paralysed and needed to be brought back to the UK.

She said: "If you ask him to blink he can blink, if you ask him to squeeze your hand he can squeeze your hand, but he is seriously ill."

Part of Mr Dukes' skull was removed during the operations.

Ms Jahme, a Guardian journalist, said she had met three of the sultan's children at a birthday party for the comedian Simon Amstell and so was able to contact him and ask for his help.

After a number of phone calls with the sultan himself he agreed to pay for AirMed to fly Mr Dukes back to Southampton.

An AirMed spokesman confirmed that Mr Dukes was due to arrive back in the UK on Sunday at Southampton Airport.

He will be taken to the neurology department at Southampton General Hospital.