A FORMER Dudley window cleaner who broke his hip and wrist when he fell from a ladder is backing the Health and Safety Exectutive’s new campaign to prevent workplace injuries caused through trips, slips and falls.

Ken Bradley, 63, was cleaning windows at a house in July 2006 when the ladder slipped, throwing him to the ground.

The fall left him so badly hurt he had to give up his venture, which he had just started following redundancy a year previous.

Ken said: “I felt the ladder slip from under me and I grabbed a window to try and stop myself from falling. But I couldn’t reach. I don’t really remember much after that until I woke up in hospital.”

He was in hospital for nine days and had to have his hip pinned and stapled together.

The severity of his injuries means he no longer can climb ladders, as well as doing certain jobs he took for granted before the fall.

Ken said: “It’s the confidence as much as anything. I’d have done anything once but once the confidence has gone, it makes you think twice.

“I can no longer walk as far as I used to be able to and I certainly can’t clamber up and down ladders.”

Ken is now backing the HSE’s new campaign Shattered Lives, which aims to raise awareness of the impact of trips, slips and falls.

As part of the campaign, a new website has been set up -hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives – where people can find out information about easy and cost effective ways to reduce such accidents.

HSE inspector Brian Martin said: “Slips, trips and falls can be seen as comical but when they result in injuries like Ken’s, it’s proof they are anything but funny.

“However, the vast majority of slips, trips and falls can be easily prevented.”