A MAN who survived a traumatic brain injury and regained his memory is embarking on a career in public speaking to tell his story.

Ben Clench, 36, from Hove Park Villas, defied doctors’ expectations when he made a strong recovery after being in a coma for a month.

Ben said when he woke up he did not know who he was.

He said: “After a coma your brain is completely scrambled.

“You don’t know how to talk or how to move, and you don’t know who anyone is.

“It wasn’t scary, it was just utter confusion.”

Ben had suffered a serious head injury from a bad car accident while on holiday in the Dominican Republic in September 2010.

Ben’s girlfriend at the time, Jazz, was killed instantly, while Ben was taken to a local hospital before being flown back to the UK and put in intensive care.

After Ben woke up, the doctor’s prognosis was not good, but he managed to make enough progress to leave the hospital, and began an intensive rehabilitation programme.

Just nine months after leaving hospital, Ben decided to do another master’s degree in international development to relearn what he knew before.

He said: “I needed to remember what I used to know.

“I wanted to push myself, and made a lot of leaps of faith during that time.

“The doctors gave me quite a stern warning that I wasn’t ready, but I’m proud to say I proved them wrong.”

In 2017 Ben published a memoir, “Ben, Again” about his recovery, after doctors suggested he should share his story to give others hope.

Having done a lot of presentations about his book, last year Ben applied to give a talk at TedxBrighton.

He said: “The organiser told me that for Ted talks you have to only talk about one thing, so I thought, God, what am I going to say?

“The doctor who treated me in the Dominican Republic gave my family some advice.

“He said: ‘You must always follow the patient’.

“So I decided to make that the focus of my Ted talk.”

Ben was voted the best speaker out of 17 others, and said he is now actively looking for opportunities to do more public speaking.