A biker who crashed and broke his neck in France has spoken of his lonely month in a hospital where he says staff refused to speak to him in English.

David Griffiths, 62, a retired nurse, says medical staff were allowed to speak only French in line with a government policy to protect the language.

But he reckons that goes against everything nursing should be.

Mr Griffiths, of Cranford Avenue, has ridden a motorbike since he was a teenager.

He was on a trip to the Superbike World Championships in France with Poynton Motorcycle Club, riding from Macclesfield to Portsmouth and then 300 miles through France to Magny-Cours.

The group was 150 miles from the championships when Mr Griffiths had a slight stroke, crashed his Honda into a lamp-post and was thrown off.

He was taken to A&E in Laval where staff found he had a broken shoulder blade and three broken bones in his neck.

He was transferred to a hospital in Angers where he had an operation to put three titanium screws and an artificial bone in his neck.

Mr Griffiths says medical staff refused to speak English to him and he was not offered a translator.

His brother got the British Embassy in Paris to contact the hospital, but nothing changed. Mr Griffiths, who has worked as a psychiatric nurse and nurse teacher, said: “I got angry as I felt they weren’t doing their job as nurses properly.

“The technical care was brilliant and some of the nurses tried to speak English even though they weren’t allowed to.

“But on one ward I didn’t speak to a single person and found out one of the nurses could speak English but chose not to.

“This goes against everything nursing should be.

“You should make a patient feel as comfortable as possible.

“In my experience the NHS provides translators with a long list of languages.

“I had no treatment for the stroke and I know the first 48 hours are critical so I gave myself physio as my jaw had dropped and I had limited movement in my hands.

“But I wish I could have spoken to the nurses and had some proper physio. It was very lonely.”

Mr Griffith, who is now recovering from his ordeal back at home, believes France’s policy of protecting the language has no place in nursing.

He added:“I understand the government wants people to only use French and take pride in the language, but this should not apply in nursing.”