One of the members on the trip was Graham, who sustained his injury whilst skiing. He shares his experience…
“I was caught in an Avalanche back in December 2012. I kind of came off second best to the Avalanche, I was actually dead for 30 minutes until an amazing rescue team found me, in particular a dog. I’ve been saying this for 3 years now, but I do need to go back and thank them and give the dog a fillet steak.
I was then in a coma for 10 days in Grenoble and because of the lack of oxygen under the snow, I was left with a very serious brain injury which means I’m learning to eat, talk and walk again. It’s like just when you think I couldn’t be anymore immature, I suddenly proved everyone wrong! 3 years on, I was lucky enough to get to go on a Headway ski trip, although when I found out I would be strapped into a wheelbarrow thing on skis with someone behind holding on to me with reigns …without wanting to sound ungrateful, I was a bit disappointed, I was hoping to have a go on a snowboard again. In all honesty, I am probably light years away from riding on a snowboard again, but still thought the wheelbarrow thing, ok, adaptive ski thingy would be naff. We headed up to the top of the slope, which is quite high for an indoor slope, made sure we were all set up, then off we went. I have to say, as soon as I got going from the top and we picked up speed, started cornering and jumping over bumps I remembered the exhilaration from snowboarding and although it wasn’t the same, I really enjoyed it! I had another 3 runs, the last 2 where I had to use my arms attached to skis to turn. It was probably the best thing I have done since my accident!!”
We are really grateful to Northern Trust for supporting the day and making this trip possible – we had a ball!
