GUERNSEY POST staff are donating part of their wages to colleague John Murphy, who suffered serious injuries in a road accident at the weekend. ‘I decided to ask everybody if they would donate an hour of their wages towards John Murphy and his family,’ said postie Gary De Carteret.

‘I just thought it was a nice thing to do. He is going to have a lot of bills and his family will have travel expenses.’

Some posties have agreed to donate a day’s pay or their overtime – including all those on the L’Islet round on which Mr Murphy worked. Almost all Guernsey Post’s 300 or so staff have made some form of donation.

‘We were all extremely worried and still are about John and the injuries he has sustained. However, everyone here is pulling together and we are doing everything we can to help him,’ said operations director Boley Smillie.

‘He has been a postman for about four months and has fitted in extremely well. He is a nice, polite and pleasant lad. Given the strength of feeling here and the level of support shown, it illustrates what an impression he has made on us.

‘I spoke to John’s mother last night and she said that while he is in a satisfactory condition, his injuries are severe and he is still in intensive care,’ he said early yesterday afternoon.

‘On behalf of the company, we are offering John all the support we can and are all keen to see him back at work and our best wishes go to his family.’

Duty operations worker Glynis James said: ‘I came back to work yesterday and the chaps from the L’Islet section said they would all donate a day’s pay. My faith in humanity was restored and I thought I would like to do the same and others are too.

‘I’m very sad for his family. He is such a lovely boy and nothing was too much trouble for him. I could ask him anything and he would be willing to help. He was really pleased to work for the company and was really enjoying it,’ she said.

Other financial help has also come in.

Postie Tony Holland said: ‘We always have a free Christmas raffle and have decided that we will make some money for John.’

His son, Kevin, is a close friend and nephew Andrew Yabsley is the boyfriend of Mr Murphy’s younger sister, Jenny.

‘Everybody is pulling together and it’s taking our minds off the seriousness, knowing we are doing all we can for him and his family,’ said Mr Holland.

All the money made from the raffle will go towards helping Mr Murphy’s recovery and his family’s expenses.

Several local companies, including Sound & Vision, Condor and Karl Taylor Photography, have already donated prizes for the raffle since learning of the postie’s plight.

Restaurants have given meal vouchers and postal staff have donated bottles.