A woman who lost her right arm in a brutal car accident has now managed to regain her self-confidence through pole-dancing. Back in January 2017, Becca Slater's life changed forever after her vehicle skidded on a patch of black ice on the road while on her way to a cornet rehearsal. Firemen soon arrived on the scene to cut her free of the wreckage, before an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.
Her injuries were extensive, as Becca had sustained a compound fracture, dislocated right ankle, broke her tibia and fibia, and worse of all had severed the brachial artery in her upper right arm, along with a compound fracture and dislocated right elbow. Medics did all they could to save her arm, but tragically they were forced to amputate. Despite the fact that she was now disabled, and needed extensive physiotherapy to be able to walk unassisted again, health-nut Becca was desperate to start exercising properly. Six months after the crash, she returned to the gym, and there fell in love with pole-dancing.
Commenting on the alarming collision in a recent interview, Becca stated: "Apparently, my car hit black ice, skidded into the central reservation and rolled. By some insane stroke of luck, the car behind had an off-duty nurse in, and the one behind that had two off-duty firefighters, so I was in good hands very quickly ... I remember excruciating pain in my right ankle, like nothing I’d ever experienced – but worse than that was feeling absolutely nothing below my right elbow. I knew then that it was serious."
"As I was on so many painkillers, my memory of the first couple of weeks in hospital is very hazy but, apparently, even back then, one of the first things I said to the doctors after my surgery was, ‘Can I go to the gym?’” In my first pole class after everything, I started crying because I couldn’t do it. But I was determined to get strong again – and now here I am.”
She added: "The teachers were amazing and so supportive. All the one-handed tricks I’d done before were with my right hand, so I had to rebuild strength on my left side. It was difficult to push off from my right ankle too, as that was still very weak – but I pushed through and worked around it. By putting myself out there, I want to show others that their feelings are okay, and they aren’t alone. I hope that through my sports I’ve also shown that, even if you have to do things differently, don’t let anyone stand in your way."
Becca has also started an Instagram account in order to keep her many followers up to date with her health and fitness goals. So if you need somebody to inspire to you to go that extra mile, then you could do worse than Becca: she really is one of the most determined athletes ever.
