Inspiring Student Sets Up Cycling Tour Company After Near Fatal Accident
August 13th, 2012
A student from Sussex University went under the wheels of a lorry 5 years ago but luckily lives to tell the tale largely thanks to the laptop in her rucksack.
The 26-year-old was riding a moped when she turned a corner to come face to face with a lorry and that’s the last she remembers apart from the sensation of being ‘squeezed very hard’ and hearing a loud crack.
A student from Sussex University went under the wheels of a lorry 5 years ago but luckily lives to tell the tale largely thanks to the laptop in her rucksack.
The 26-year-old was riding a moped when she turned a corner to come face to face with a lorry and that’s the last she remembers apart from the sensation of being ‘squeezed very hard’ and hearing a loud crack.
The crack turned out to be the laptop in her ruck sack and the squeezing sensation was actually the lorry riding over her body.
“I was pretty lucky, really,” she said.
“If my laptop hadn’t been there that crack would have been my spine”
Told she might never walk again, the student spent three long months in hospital, went through 15 operations on her leg and endured a full year of intense rehabilitation.
She eventually made it back on to her legs but found it was much more painful than it used to be.
Luckily she quickly discovered that cycling caused her no pain at all.
“I could just cycle forever,” she says. ‘And all of a sudden I was pleased to be in my body rather than frustrated.”
The student returned to Sussex University to complete her degree and became fanatical about cycling, even convincing both her brothers and her Dad to start up the sport again.
The three of them started cycling to music events in Europe and quickly they found others interested in joining them.
That’s when they decided to form Bike2Basics which brings keen cyclists together to ride to music festivals all over the UK and Europe.
The student is now hopeful that the Success of the Olympic games will spur more people to get active and join her, her brothers and her dad on their continuing journeys.
“I still think about the accident every now and then – I had my last operation only in September so it’s still very much a part of my life – but weirdly I think the driver of the lorry was more cut up about it than I was!”
To read more about the project you can visit their website here – http://www.bike2basics.com/
If you have been injured in a cycling accident and don’t feel it was your fault, call us today for a free no-obligation assessment of your case on 01625 506 655.