Among the attendees at this year’s Royal Welsh Show was a Berriew’s Young Farmers Club, honouring one of their members who passed away in 2019.

Gareth Rogers passed away in October 2019, at the age of 27, and both his family and beloved youth club have honoured him by sporting shirts with his name embroidered onto them.

The emblem for Wales Air Ambulance is also embroidered on the shirt, as Mr Rogers credited them with saving his life.

In 2013, Mr Rogers sustained life changing injuries after falling from a ladder while having a seizure on his family’s farm in Abermule.

The accident resulted in severe spinal damage that saw him lose the use of his arms and legs.

His mother, Anwen, said: “When Gareth had his accident it took 20 minutes for the Air Ambulance to get from Mid Wales to Stoke-on-Trent.

“It took us two hours to get there. He would have died.

“He was supposed to be paralysed from the neck down when he arrived in Stoke.

“He couldn’t feel 90 percent of his body including his hands and arms, but just through his good determination he was able to get into a wheelchair and power it himself.

“He loved going to Berriew Youth Farmers Club and especially as part of the club to the Young Peoples Village at the Royal Welsh Show.”

The club was representing Gareth’s memory at the first Royal Welsh show since he passed away, as the 2020 and 2021 shows were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The special shirts were handed to the club in a presentation by Gareth’s sister, Bethan.

She said: “They were just telling us to brace for the worst, because no-one is supposed to survive those kinds of injuries. He wasn’t supposed to get any better, he was supposed to be bed-bound.

“But once he got home my parents added an extension on for him and there was no stopping him.

“He never had a bad day, he was always out. He wouldn’t let the injury stop him, in his mind he wasn’t paralysed he was just Gareth.

“He went everywhere, he did everything, he never moaned or complained. He was an inspiration, through all the pain he was in it didn’t stop him going out every day.”

Since Gareth’s death, his friends and family have raised nearly £3,000 for the Wales Air Ambulance, while Gareth bequeathed a significant amount of money to the charity from his estate.