Andy Tricker Who Suffered Terrible Back Injuries After A Motorcycle Accident Has Written A Book About His Experiences

How a young wheelchair user responded to the challenge of his injuries.

Andy Tricker was 17 years old when his motorbike ran into the back of a lorry as he was riding home from college in Ipswich, Suffolk. He was in hospital for seven months and was told that he would never walk again. Ten years later Andy is still doing two hours of exercises each day and he can walk with a frame and a brace but is generally using a wheelchair. He is shown driving his car and approaching the family bungalow in his wheelchair. He aims to get a flat of his own and leave home. Andy has written his autobiography which is now published as “Accidents Will Happen”. He is shown working at the typewriter. Andy explains that writing the book was a release from the problems which built up over the years for him. It helped get it out of his system instead of doing and thinking the same thing repeatedly, so he could cope with life. Asked why he bottled it up rather than talk with relatives or friends he says they were great but didn’t realise what he was going through, and they had problems of their own coping with him in a wheelchair. He hopes the book might help someone in a similar situation. Andy’s mother Joan says until she read the book, she had not realised how the experience had affected Andy mentally and she discovered he was a lot braver than they had recognised. Andy comments on being told he would not walk again – it spurred him on to try and prove the doctors wrong, but he found the prognosis too blunt and feels it could have been gentler and less final. He continues to use the wheelchair but does not accept it. The report ends with Andy talking about the book with his mother. The reporter was Lindsay Brooke for this video made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Accidents; Road accidents; Injuries; Spinal injuries; Wheelchair users; Mobility; Writing; Writers; Autobiographies; Books