Anguished Victor Haines has launched a plea for help in tracing a vital witness to an accident which left him with severe brain damage and his successful business in tatters.

Victor, 52, was managing director of an office cleaning firm in Eastwood which employed 15 full time and 250 part-time workers.

However, his ambitious dreams of franchising his company were shattered when he suffered serious head injuries after being knocked off his bicycle in an accident along Southend seafront.

The accident left him with permanent brain damage, unable to control his emotions without daily medication and the family business Freshstart went into liquidation when Victor had to quit work for good.

His lawyers, who say compensation could run into millions of pounds, are making a desperate appeal to trace a motorist who comforted Victor as he lay on the ground, blood pouring from an ear.

At the time of the accident he and wife Jan, who have three grandchildren, lived in Shepherd Close, Eastwood, but have since moved to Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Jan said the incident happened at about 7pm on 24 August 2000 as Victor rode towards the Kursaal along the seafront.

Victor said: "It has totally changed me. I'm having a job coming to terms with it. The smallest thing can make me very angry and I get uninhibited. I used to talk in front of 200 people, but now I get angry if a fork is placed upside down on a table."

The mystery potential witness was a woman who was driving a BMW. She stopped at the scene and placed a pillow under Victor's bleeding head and comforted him but left before police arrived.

If anyone can help they should call Anthony Cole on 0207 4305507

Published Friday, March 22, 2002