Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay took to social media over the weekend to share a slightly unusual PSA ahead of Father’s Day: wear a helmet. His message was prompted by a recent biking accident he suffered in Connecticut that left him, in his words, “looking like a purple potato.”


With shaking hands, Ramsay starts the video mentioning his love of cycling and triathlons before revealing he had a “really bad accident” that left him shaken, adding, “Honestly, I’m lucky to be here.” While he readily acknowledged how amazing the trauma surgeons and hospital staff who treated him were, his primary message for viewers was that they need to remember to wear helmets when cycling.

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“I don’t care how short the journey is, I don’t care that these helmets cost money, they’re crucial,” he emphasized, before adding that while he’s in pain, he’s lucky to be standing there relatively unscathed, save for the gigantic bruise that he then revealed to the camera.


The bruise is gnarly, covering a huge section of the left side of his torso and looking incredibly painful. He ends his video with a plea to all fathers to wear helmets, closing with, “If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t be here now.”


Unfortunately, several commenters completely missed the point of the video, asking why a helmet was so important when the main injury appeared to be to his abdomen. Fortunately, smarter commenters were quick to point out that the helmet is the reason the worst injury was to his side and not to his head, something Ramsay himself explained in the video. (Who hit their head again?)


Other commenters were supportive, with many noting just how shaken up Ramsay appeared, and several cyclists who admitted to forgoing helmets promising to try and do better. It’s awful that Ramsay was in an accident and is in such pain, but using that experience to explain to others just how much worse it could have been without a helmet is a pretty good use of his influence, made even more effective by how vulnerable he seemed in the video.


If something has Gordon Ramsay shaken up, you know that shit’s serious. So wear a helmet!