The partner of a London DJ who is in an induced coma in Malta after falling off a hotel balcony has spoken of her horror and launched a fund-raising appeal to return him home.

Paul Cartwright, 45, fell from the fourth floor balcony on August 14. He broke his leg, foot, ribs, pelvis and back and is in hospital on a ventilator.

Danielle Hickey told the Evening Standard that she cried her eyes out when she found Mr Cartwright surrounded by hotel staff on the ground.

"I got into bed and Paul went for a cigarette on the balcony,” she said. “I must’ve fallen asleep. When I got up to go the toilet, I realised he wasn’t there. I went to the balcony to see if he was there … he was at the bottom … Some staff had gathered around him and they called the ambulance. This was at 12.30am. We’d been out for a meal and a walk and come back. We’d had a lovely day on the beach and everything. I don’t know what happened,” she told the newspaper.

Mr Cartwright’s mother and sister came to Malta to visit him in hospital.

They have been told that hospital costs are covered by the European Health Card, but flying them home in a specialised air ambulance will cost them some £18,000.

Read more about the fund-raising appeal here.