Myers has nine broken bones after fall down 18m cliff

Sir Douglas Myers.

Sir Douglas Myers is nursing broken bones after a miraculous escape when he plummeted 18 metres down a steep cliff on to a rocky cove in the Far North.

The former beer baron, who is battling widespread secondary cancer, was knocked unconscious and suffered nine fractures including broken ribs, vertebrae and lumbar after he slipped and fell down a cliff on his family farm at Matauri Bay last month.

Family members called emergency services and the Northland Emergency Service Trust helicopter landed in the tiny cove after the pilots decided it was too dangerous to winch him up the cliff. One of the pilots on board, Dean Voelkerling, said Sir Douglas was "quite banged up". Medics stabilised him before he was flown to Whangarei Hospital.

The family have made a donation to the helicopter trust.

Prolonged chemotherapy Sir Douglas is undergoing to control 12 tumours has left him with side-effects, including frozen feet and fingers which he described as "grossly unpleasant".

Doctors are pleased with his progress and say his condition is stable, but Sir Douglas said the frozen feet were troublesome.

Since his cliff plunge, he has also fallen down stairs and this month, during a quick trip back to London for an oncology scan, fell in Eaton Square and found his left leg trapped under an SUV. The car backed off him, leaving him with not much more than a scraped ankle and "injured pride". But he's philosophical about his run of bad luck.

"Even when you've got cancer, life goes on. Here's me skydiving off a cliff."

Sir Douglas has been back to look at the cliff and cove below, where he and his daughter had been planning a family picnic before the accident.

"It was a long way down, very steep with lots of rocks."

His injuries were gradually healing, he said, and he was looking forward to relaxing at Matauri Bay before returning to London.