AN ACTOR narrowly escaped being paralysed in a road accident. West End performer Jonny Sheldon, 32, was hit by a car as he crossed the road outside Crosby Civic Hall, cracking part of his spine. His partner Emma King, 29, was due to give birth to their first child the same day. Jonny, lead actor in the panto Who Can Save Christmas?, was on his way to his third performance of the day when the accident happened at 5.30pm on Friday, December 14. Doctors told the couple if the dancer, who teaches drama at KGV, had broken one vertebrae higher or lower, he may never have walked again. Jonny, who appeared in Beauty and the Beast and as Judah in a West End performance of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, said: “It was a bit of a miracle. “Luckily, I do martial arts so when I landed after hitting the car’s bonnet, I bent my legs, which saved me. “There happened to be a doctor passing and I remember he held my head because they thought I’d broken my neck. “It felt like I was really, really drunk – everything was spinning and I was seeing double. I kept slipping and in and out of consciousness. I was having trouble breathing and I thought I was going to die.” Girlfriend Emma, who appeared in CATS and Saturday Night Fever, is nine months pregnant and feared the shock of the accident would bring on her labour. She said: “I wanted Jonny to be at the birth but I was worried about him and wanted to be there for him as well. “I’d just spoken to him on the phone before the crash and was waiting for him to call back. “I was feeding a friend’s baby when my mobile rang. My friend answered it and when she said Jonny had been hurt, my whole body started to tremble. “At the hospital he had tubes coming out of his hands and arms, he was attached to a monitor and the side of his head had swollen up – I was terrified.” Johnny, who is using Chinese medicines and Reiki as part of his recovery, said: “If Emma had given birth that day, we could have been in hospital beds next to each other!” The show’s writer and producer Anne Dalton, of ABD Productions, who has known Jonny for more than ten years, said: “When he was lying in the road, I thought something awful had happened to his spine. “He was in and out of consciousness and all he kept saying was ‘I’ll be all right in a minute, I’ve got a show to do’. “It was so lucky how everything worked out with the doctor and nurse being there. “If you believe in guiding stars then there was definitely one watching out for him that day.” | 
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