Paralysed ex-Army medic becomes disabled race team’s first female driver
ASCOT: An ex-Army medic who was paralysed from the chest down in a motorcycle crash has become Team BRIT’s first female racing driver, writes Amy Horsfield.
Nerys Pearce, 38, from Ascot joined the Army in 2004 as an advanced trauma medic.
In 2008 she was hit by a reversing car while riding her motorbike in Twickenham.
Months of treatment and spinal blocks caused a spinal cord injury which left her paralysed from the chest down.
“It took me around six months for me to fully come to terms with the fact that I’d never sit up, walk, or go to the toilet without tubes again,” said Nerys.
“I always had hope that my injuries would be fixed – being an adrenaline junkie I was used to being injured and getting back to it again – this was just incomprehensible.”
Nerys was bed bound for four years where she struggled with bouts of depression until BLESMA, an armed forces charity which supports limbless veterans in the UK, invited her on a ski trip in Colorado.
“In 2015, a support officer from BLESMA came to my home and said he was going to help me,” Nerys said. “He asked if I would consider going skiing with BLESMA – something I had always loved, but I could barely even communicate with him, let alone believe that it could happen. BLESMA took me to Colorado and the trip changed my life.
“By the end of the trip I had skied solo on a sit ski down a mountain – days before, I struggled to even be out of bed without passing out,” she said.
As Nerys' confidence and strength grew she went on to take part in ‘Enduroman’ a 300-mile continuous triathlon from London to Paris, racing as part of a team of adaptive female athletes for Help 4 Heroes and breaking the world record.
In 2016 she competed in the Invictus Games in Orlando, winning ten medals in power lifting, rowing, track and field – the most any competitor has ever won in one games – and in 2018 she competed for Team Wales in the Commonwealth Games in Australia,
Dave Player, the founder of
Team BRIT which supports people with disabilities, PTSD and mental health issues through motorsport, approached Nerys earlier this year to join the team.
She took part in her first race in the Trophy Category of the
Britcar Championship at Silverstone on Sunday, October 11.
“I want to be as fast as I can, and I want to push the boundaries of what people expect from women and from disabled people. I’m not just a disabled woman ‘having a go’, I’m a competitive racer.”