Written by Sean Miller

Laura Berry is perhaps one of the most naturally talented female snowboarders that the UK has produced the recent years, but a series of unfortunate events has seen her body battered and brooked and left her wondering how she’ll be able to bounce back.

Laura competing in the Burton Am Tour SeriesBizarrely, not many people know the full extent of Laura’s injuries as she has had rare spells of fitness where she has competed and won events. The publications of Laura’s triumphs have somewhat blurred the focus of Laura’s battle with injuries, so here’s the real deal about Laura Berry.

Laura first broke her collarbone years ago, before she even started to snowboard, while playing football with Arsenal Ladies FC. The bone healed fine and there were no complications.

Then in 2004, whilst on a magazine trip, Laura has an ungodly slam and smashed her collarbone in two places. After her treatment and rest period the NHS said that the bone had healed fine and she was okay to shred again. After that Laura broke her collarbone a further seven times, each break becoming more and more ridiculous, until in March 2008 she broke her collar bone after she fell on her ass- your collarbone shouldn’t break when you fall on your ass!

After each occasion Laura broke her collarbone the NHS treated her and gave her the classic line; ‘Just stop snowboarding’.

Fortunately, after the ass-falling breakage, Laura decided to just pay to go and see a private consultant. After prodding and probing the consultant told Laura that the break from 2004, where her collarbone was broken in two places had not healed properly. Only one break had healed, so she’d spent four years with a broken collarbone. If you take into consideration that in those four years Laura won The Burton Am Tour Series, The Slopestyle Europa Cup series, The Burton Black Metal, placed 5th and 11th in the Roxy Chicken Jam and won many Brits contests, then that is pretty impressive.

Luckily for Laura the private consultant took pity on her having little money, realising that he would probably put a lot of effort in for her to just run off into the sunset all fixed up without paying, and referred her to another consultant who did both NHS and private work. So, in theory, she got a private doctor for free!

At the end of the 2008 season Laura had a bone graft and a plate inserted via screws into her collarbone to make it heal properly. This was done on the NHS, but with this good private doctor, so there was every chance she would heal 100%.

After eight months off, Laura was allowed to ride again, she bounced back by winning The Brits 2009 Big Air and getting 2nd in the Slopestyle event, as well as winning the Red Bull Home Run for the 2nd year running and placing 2nd in two smaller contests during the season.

Laura’s collarbone with the plate and screws in

In September 2009 she had her plate taken out and things got complicated. A couple of weeks after the removal, a lump had formed where her plate had been. Milton Keynes General Hospital X-rayed her and said it was ‘probably ok’!

A week later Laura had a letter from MK General asking her to pop back in because at a second glance her x-ray didn’t look quite right. Fearing the worst from the NHS, Laura decided to return to her private surgeon rather than leave herself in the hands of the NHS Emergency department treatment lottery. A good job too, because her surgeon found that Laura had a massive aneurysm measuring 2cm by 2cm. An aneurysm is different to a blood clot as it’s a bubble which the blood continues to flow through and can swell and burst killing you! It turned out that Laura ironically developed the aneurysm when the surgeon drilled the plate to her collarbone, because he also drilled into her artery a bit too meaning when it was removed it left a hole in the artery!

The plate and screws once removed from Laura’s collarbone

Unknown to Laura at this time her sponsors were becoming restless with her constant stream of injuries and subsequent ‘healing time’ leaving her unable to snowboard or compete. In October 2009 Red Bull informed Laura that she was coming to the end of her contract and they were dropping her. Not the best thing to hear when you’re suffering all of the above already!

The surgeon treating Laura wanted to inject her with a clotting agent to stop the aneurysm, there was a slight risk that it wouldn’t work and the injection could worsen then situation, the odds were one in a million.

Defying the odds the injection didn’t work, the clotting agent started to block Laura’s artery and they had to stop because they would leave a blood clot in her arm. After the procedure there was a small clot which she was told would sort itself out in time.

After being transferred to Oxford, where the Vascular team is much better, the doctors again tried to closed the aneurysm, this time by passing a tube from her groin to her aneurysm to close off the entrance and then injecting the clotting agent again. Laura describes it as ‘the single most painful thing I have ever had in my life. The pain was so bad I passed out’… but again there were complications.

Laura came round to doctors everywhere and was rushed into surgery and told that there was a strong possibility that she would not come back out with her HAND! Where they had tried the second procedure they had created another blockage meaning there was literally no blood going to her hand. Luckily that operation went well, meaning that Laura won’t be grabbing stalefish with a hook. The doctors put her on a 12 week programme of aspirin to thin her blood, hoping that when she would come off the medication her blood would thicken and the aneurysm will heal itself.

The aftermath of the emergency operation

After the operation, Laura left the UK and incredibly went away for the winter to Morzine! Laura returned to the UK earlier this month to see both the surgeon about her collarbone and the surgeon about her arteries.

Laura says that, ‘For 12 weeks my hand has been cold to the point of my fingers being white and I can’t warm them up. Apparently this is because of where I had the emergency operation, I now have a clot in my elbow. My shoulder aches and doesn’t move 100% properly. I still have an aneurysm which is the same size as before and my collarbone is still in two bits. The blockage in my elbow is restricting the blood flow to my hand by about 50%, which is in turn, creating the coldness.’

It turns out that Laura is in the ultimate catch 22, they can’t heal her aneurysm or her collarbone because if something goes wrong then she’ll probably LOSE HER ARM! But in the mean time she is stuck with a broken collarbone and an aneurysm!

The next step is to wait for the blockage to harden up before putting a tube in her arm to widen the artery. This won’t happen for another 12 weeks.

Laura is very strangely upbeat; ‘Even though I’m probably the most fecked I have ever been, the doctors won’t do anything for another 12 weeks, which I guess means that I can still do my season and shred. Hopefully after 12 weeks they can fix it and this drama will all be over, but who knows’.

Laura maintains that she is still not riding at 100%, but she’s stoked to be riding at all. ‘I don’t think anyone has ever been told that they are okay to still shred because they’re too battered to actually be fixed! I’m just stoked I can still be out riding and doing what I love’.

Laura enjoying her shredding © James North

So if you see Bezza out on the shred, just know, there’s a slim chance she might drop dead in front of you. But at least you’ll know the reason why!!!