A CRASH that wrote off a Southampton man’s £95,000 Mercedes after it smashed into a motorway barrier at 70mph, helped save his life.

Officers were amazed and said Neil Baxter was lucky to be alive let alone to have walked away from the accident with as little as three broken ribs.

After being taken to hospital on December 22, doctors scanned Neil’s chest and discovered a lung tumour which turned out to be an aggressive type of cancer.

Neil, a retired builder in his 60s, said: “I had been ill for quite a few months, they kept saying it was a virus. I had X-rays and a blood test for asbestos.

“Then three days before Christmas I was going down the M27 at about 10.30pm. There was a very bad downpour and my car hit a big sheet of water across the road. I aquaplaned and spun around before hitting the barrier at 70mph.

“People say, your whole life flashes before your eyes when you think you’re about to die, but I remember every single millisecond from the first impact to the airbag going off and it spinning until it came to a stop. I thought ‘I am alive’. It was like everything happened in slow motion.

“The police said I was very lucky to be alive.”

Officers said if it was not for his 2012 Mercedes, which cost £95,000 brand new, then he would not have survived.

Neil, who was born in India, said the scan also found a lot of scar tissue which turned out to be from when he had TB as a child, although he did not remember this.

The father-of-three added that when he was unsure if he would live, he thought about how he had taken his life for granted and wanted to do something good.

Neil, who is a keen dancer, decided to rally the support of a number of competing Southampton Jive companies and organise a charity ball with the aim of raising £3,000 for the Wessex Cancer Trust.

The sold-out event will take place at The Concorde Club, in Eastleigh, at 7.30pm tonight.

Doctors have since removed half of Neil’s right lung and also told him he is in remission.

“I decided at the start that whatever happens, is going to happen whether I can go or not. But I am going to the ball.

“I keep being told ‘you are the luckiest man alive, everything that has happened to you has happened for a reason’.

“Had I not had the accident I would still have the cancer and probably would not be alive because it was a very aggressive sort – this has been a blessing in disguise.”