“I survived an unprovoked attack by a stranger - now the kindness of strangers is helping me recover”
"It reminds me there is still kindness in the world", Tharel Thompson says.
“I survived an unprovoked attack by a stranger - now the kindness of strangers is helping me recover”
Tharel arrived in the UK on holiday from Barbados when a brutal attack changed his life.
STORY BY MELISSA SIGODO
MAY 3, 2026
After two and a half weeks in an induced coma, holidaymaker Tharel Thompson woke up to the sound of organ support machines and a life he didn’t recognise.
What should have been an enjoyable night out at the Walkabout Bar in Reading, ended with him being stabbed in the head in a brutal unprovoked attack that doctors doubted he would survive.
After getting the news of her son being in critical condition, his mother Yvonne rushed to take the first flight from Barbados to be at his bedside along with his father.
As Tharel slowly woke up and asked, “what happened to me?” - both parents braced themselves to explain.
British Army soldier Krisma Anthony, 23, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted murder following the horrific attack but since then, keen jet skier Tharel has been forced to relearn the basics of how to walk again without access to NHS funding for his expensive and vital treatment.
Although Tharel has remained determined to regain his independence, the 31-year-old has suffered 10 seizures in the two years since the life-changing incident in February 2024.
“It’s scary”, his mother told the Community Reporter.
“The first seizure I saw was very scary because I didn’t know what was going on.
“I have to make sure he’s lying on his side, so his passageway is open and he doesn’t choke.
“I have to make sure he doesn’t have any objects around him that could hurt him.”
Tharel says he doesn’t remember the seizures when they last for more than five minutes but he hopes they’ll eventually stop.
He said: “If the seizure is long, more than five minutes, its confuses me. I don’t even remember my clothes getting changed.
“My mum will say she had to change my clothes, but I don’t remember. I don’t remember what’s happened.
“The doctors told me I have to take the medication as long as I need to. That’s the clearest answer I’ve gotten. I’ll have to take it as long as I need to. I’m hoping it goes away.”
Tharel and his mother have had to adjust to the reality of their “new normal” in a foreign country away from family in sunny Barbados.
They’ve been fortunate to find new friends and a place to stay in the last two years while Tharel awaits a critical surgery.
But till an operation date is confirmed, Yvonne says they are making the most of their time but that it feels as though they are simply “existing.”
Yvonne said: “We haven’t been sightseeing or anything like that because Tharel gets motion sickness.
“But we recently discovered a nature trail. We’ve been going there recently to get out of the house now the sun is out, but we haven’t been able to do any sightseeing. And we don’t really have the funds to get around like that.
“On a typical day, we get up, say grace, have breakfast, have a shower, go for a walk, have lunch, take a rest and go for another walk. Tharel exercises in between as well.
“We’re existing. We’re not living our life. We need the surgery for some kind of normalcy.”
The 31-year-old needs a titanium plate fitted on his skull to protect his brain, and the deposit for that alone is £10,000.
But through the family’s journey, the kindness of strangers has raised £58,000 on GoFundMe which has paid the deposit for Tharel’s key surgery and his rehabilitation.
When the amount was reached, speaking to the Community Reporter at the time, Yvonne shared how she got down on her knees to give thanks.
With still over £100,000 needed to cover the full bill for his medical expenses, more people including a local church community and a sky diving enthusiast are stepping up to support the family.
Jonathan who has completed over 300 jumps for charity recently took to the skies for Tharel in April.
“I said to myself, ‘I have to do this for this young man’, Jonathan recalled.
“That could have been my family. That could be my brother, my cousin. He’s young. He’s got the world ahead of him. No one should have gone through that.”
A local church in Reading has also been moved to hold a service to give thanks for Tharel’s life and to raise funds for his medical bill.
The service held by Reverand Josh Wilson, Reverand Polly Falconer and Reverand Lapompe took place at Reading Minister Church on February 8 where residents came together to support the 31-year-old.
Now, a Give Tharel Five campaign has been launched in the hopes that people will donate £5 towards his GoFundMe and to share his fundraiser with five people in a bid to help him reach his goal and start living again.
Two years since Tharel woke up in hospital feeling “glad to be alive” he has come a long way his mother says.
After doctors telling her he wouldn’t make it, she believes it was a complete “miracle.”
“I was just telling Tharel the other day, because we were going through some of the messages that I was sending back and forth with my family at the time - it brought back a big rush of emotions”, Yvonne said.
“He came far from the state he was in. I remember when I first saw him, the incident happened on the Sunday, and I first got to England on the Monday - seeing his head swollen so big like that.
“On Tuesday morning, they took out his skull. The doctors kept saying, they don’t know if he’s going to make it.
“That was a miracle that he survived to be honest.”
Over the last two years, the 31-year-old has remained positive and hopes to get better with each day that comes.
Although he was brutally attacked by a stranger which changed his entire life, Tharel says he’s been reminded through the charitable acts of people he never knew before that “there is still kindness in the world.”
For more information about the GoFundMe and to give Tharel five, click here.