Izzy Judd: 'Music let my brother in a coma connect with us'

Rupert Johnston had been in a coma for two months after a horrific car crash in February 1997 and was showing no signs of brain activity.

Doctors advised turning off the 18-year-old musician's life support machine. But his father brought his son's beloved French horn to his bedside.

Rupert, who grew up in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, began slowly moving his fingers along the valves in time to a Mozart recording.

"That was our first moment of hope that there was something there," recalls his younger sister, violinist Izzy Judd, who was 12 at the time.

Rupert's skull needed to be rebuilt. He had 13 hours of brain surgery, where they removed his front left lobe, with his right lobe left in place but permanently damaged.

"The muscles around his lips, which he used to play the horn, were the only part of his face that wasn't severely damaged," Izzy says.

Rupert was studying at the Guildhall School of Music at the time of the accident, having left home at the age of eight to become a chorister at King's College, Cambridge.

He and Izzy, and their two brothers, grew up surrounded by music. Their parents ran a music school in Hertfordshire.

"Rupert was an exceptionally gifted musician and he was so charismatic, full of life and vibrant," Izzy recalls.

"His ambition was to be a professional horn musician and I have no doubt he would have achieved that."

Rupert gradually began to physically recover and he was discharged from hospital. But the family soon realised he would always need 24-hour care.

The now 45-year-old has problems with his memory and spatial awareness. He has no inhibitions and needs help doing basic tasks like washing and laundry, Izzy says.

It feels like there is always someone missing, Izzy says, even though he is still here and the family is "still grieving the loss of who he might have been".

Yet Rupert can still play his French horn to an exceptional standard, which Izzy describes as "a miracle".

"As a child he had this extraordinary gift, and that still lives on. If there was going to be anything that would allow him to connect with us, it would be music. It is in his bones, it pours out of him and it has ever since he was a little boy."

Rupert has spent the last 21 years living in a home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, run by The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust - a charity that cares for people with acquired brain injuries.

He regularly performs with the Aylesbury concert band and still has the same brilliant technical ability, Izzy says.

"He can sometimes be disruptive during rehearsals, but they are so accepting of him and he is a really valued member of the group.

"When he plays there is such familiarity, so you can slip into a bit of normality for a moment and you almost forget what has happened."

Izzy went on to study at The Royal Academy of Music in London. She and her other two brothers became professional musicians. Izzy joined the electric string quartet Escala, who found fame in 2008 on Britain's Got Talent.

She performed in the strings section for the band McFly on tour and began dating their drummer, Harry Judd.

"Harry has always been phenomenal with Rupert and that was one of the reasons I knew I wanted to marry him. Harry did not know Rupert before the accident so he takes him for who he is," she says.

On their wedding day, Rupert performed a horn solo from John Williams's Somewhere in My Memory, which features in the film Home Alone.

"People were in awe. It takes your breath away when Rupert performs. I felt unbelievably proud, but also sad because he was on the path to such a huge career and he's not likely to have his own wedding day."

Izzy and Harry went on to have three children, which Izzy says triggered a lot of emotions about her brother.

"Rupert is very sweet with them and they are very close. My son Kit reminds me of Rupert as a young boy. He has the same zest for life and he pushes boundaries. It makes me think about the life that Rupert could be living."

Izzy did not pick up her violin for some time after having children and says she was "a bit lost in early motherhood".

"We struggled to start a family and then after I had Lola, Kit came along quickly and unexpectedly and life became a bit chaotic.

"When I had my youngest Lockie, I played the violin to soothe him one day and it really helped us both. I started to play different lullabies and my older two children started feeling calmer too."

When Izzy recently decided to go back in the studio to record a new album, which includes some of the lullabies she plays, she wanted to invite Rupert too. They recorded a new version of Somewhere In My Memory.

Rupert is currently having brain scans after his memory started to decline, Izzy says, and there is a link between brain injuries and early onset dementia. It made her realise she might not have much time left to collaborate with her brother.

"I was worried that I neglected my relationship with Rupert after having children and we were not able to see him during Covid, but now I feel more at peace.

"Music has always been a language that my family has used when words were too difficult for us to speak. I wanted to reconnect with Rupert again and give him the space to share his talent. This has been very healing for me."

Izzy Judd and Rupert Johnston's single Somewhere in My Memory is out now. Izzy Judd's EP Moments is released on 16 February.