ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

An entrepreneur who lost his leg when he was hit by a Tube train on a drunken night out has revealed details of the accident for the first time.

Richard Beese, from Bristol, narrowly escaped death after he drunkenly wandered down a Tube tunnel at Bank station in 2005 when he was a 23-year-old equity broker.

Mr Beese, now 37, used the compensation - “a five figure sum” - from the incident to become an entrepreneur. He initially built a care home business and is now a co-owner of trampoline park Flip-Out.

He said the accident started after a night out “involving beer, champagne, and shots” with work colleagues.

“It was all a bit hazy but the last thing I remember is chatting to the band Hearsay and that’s it, black out,” he said.

“I didn’t know until two months after but I had got into the locked station at Bank.

“I navigated my way down to the platform and fell asleep on a bench until about 3am.

“I got up, walked close to the side and fell over the lines and was on the track for 10 minutes.

“Then, instead of getting back up onto the platform, I carried on walking down the line and disappeared into the tunnel. Apparently I was there for two hours and went down another 100 meters.”

Mr Beese said the next thing he remembers is a tube coming towards him.

“I had a major panic and thought f***, that’s it,” he said.

“Somehow I managed to slide into a little gap in the wall, a workmen’s doorway, which was a miracle because if I was anywhere else I would have died.

“The tube is just going past my face, sparks are flying and it feels like it’s a ruler away from me. The train goes in at the platform and I’m lying on the floor.

“I look down and my left leg is open from my thigh, all the way down to the bottom, I could see all the muscle and then my right leg was just hanging off."

Mr Beese said he started “screaming and shouting, going light headed”

“Someone thankfully heard me and the guards shut down the line.

“It was amazing I stayed conscious because of the amount of blood I lost.

“I don’t remember getting to the hospital but do recall the doctors saying ‘Mr. Beese we’re going to have to take your right leg off’, I said, ‘I don’t care, just don’t let me die.’”

Mr Beese was back at work three months after the accident and said he was determined not to allow his disability to hold him back.

“It’s a reminder that life is short, we’re not here for long and we’re not indestructible. Unless something like this happens to you, you can’t comprehend it,” he said.

“I was a resilient stock broker, very focused and selfish really and very driven to advance my career. This allowed me to take a step back and feel other people’s griefs and problems. “

When Mr Beese was eventually awarded a settlement after the accident, he used the money to start a new care home company with a friend.

His most recent venture is investing in the trampoline industry, becoming a co-owner of Flip-Out, which has sites across the UK.