“G“Georgina? Hello? Georgina?” George Brayshaw parks his car on the side of a road somewhere in Switzerland, I think in Bern, and presses it against the back window to get better reception. “How’s Switzerland…” the phone hangs up. “…What? It’s hung up…” And then it hangs up again. “How’s Switzerland…” a truck passes by. “…it’s raining heavily.” Brayshaw, 30, is on her way back from the second World Rowing Championships in Lucerne with other members of the British women’s four-man sculls team. Just as they did at last year’s world championships in Belgrade, and the European championships in Szeged earlier this year, they have again won gold.
As of this interview, she has 60 days to prepare for the Olympics, where, although she’d never say it, the team is once again the gold medal favorite. But Brayshaw takes life one step at a time, and before that there’s a long drive, a ferry ride, and now a story to tell. And when she starts to tell her story, the distractions, the noise, the traffic, the chatter of the other passengers in the car fade away, because it’s one hell of a story.
Brayshaw never wanted to row. Horse riding was her hobby as a child. Her family wasn’t particularly well off – she describes herself as a “Northern public school girl” – but her parents bought her four riding lessons for her seventh birthday. Soon she was going once a week, then twice a week, and volunteering at a local stable on weekends. Her parents eventually borrowed some of their shares in a horse to buy it. “Then we started making more and more money, and by the time I was 15 I was riding full time.” The horse was called Harry, and she loved him.
And then the accident happened. She doesn’t remember anything before, during or after the accident. “The last thing I can remember is about an hour before it happened. I remember arriving at the scene and seeing all my friends, and then I remember going through the fields and starting to ride my bike, but nothing else.” For the next two or three weeks she forgot everything. “I have no idea.” She pieced it all together from the memories of those who were with her.
They ran together through fields and then onto a tarmac road. “Obviously, when you come onto a road you have to slow down, but Harry was being a bit bold. I don’t remember any of this, I’ve just heard, I tried to stop him and get him to trot or walk along the road, but he was just a idiot, and he hit the road, spun around and skidded.” And then it all went black. Brayshaw was taken to hospital by ambulance helicopter. She remained in a coma for nine days.
Her parents, three siblings and friends had no idea whether she would regain consciousness, and if so, how, when she did find that the left side of her body was completely paralyzed.
“I could only use my right arm, and I could only smile with half my face.” It took months of therapy before she was able to walk again, and a full year before she was completely normal. “Even then, I’d reach out to close the car door with my right hand, or I’d walk around school with my left hand on my shoulder, and my teachers would ask me, ‘Did you hurt your arm?’ and I’d say, ‘No, sorry, I didn’t.'” A member of the cross-country team, she suddenly found herself forgetting how to run. “It was really weird. I remember the gym teacher saying, ‘Yes, you can run,’ but I ended up having to run.”
Brayshaw was asked if she wanted to retake her GCSEs the year before, but was adamant that she didn’t want to repeat the year. She has a twin brother and hated the idea that he might leave her behind. She is now old enough to accept that it may have been the wrong decision. “But at the time I didn’t want to be different to anyone else. It was so bad that after the accident my friends would often say they felt I wasn’t the Georgie I used to be. I just wanted to fit in and be the same. So I didn’t fail a year. I just decided to get through it all.”
That’s how she’s lived her life ever since. Doctors had warned her not to, but she was back on the horses again soon after. “As soon as I got out of the hospital I went back to the stables and helped out, cleaning up the horse manure and that sort of thing. My friend was riding Harry and when he was sweaty and tired I’d ride and just walk him around.” Then she was galloping again. She didn’t blame Harry or anyone else. “It’s not his fault. It’s just one of those things. What happened to me wasn’t good or bad, it was just life. And I was always taught that you just have to get back on and try again. And I just like proving people wrong. It’s like rowing.”
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She didn’t start the sport until college. She was all in. She wanted to make the most of it. She stuck with rowing, in part because people told her she couldn’t do it. The first time she tried, she didn’t make it. “But I just thought, ‘I’ll come back and try again.'” And when she finally did make it, she had to endure four years without funding and the disappointment of being left off the Tokyo Olympic team. But with everything she’d been through, it didn’t seem that hard. Her mother was recovering from a stroke, and “when stuff like that happens, you think to yourself, ‘Hey, just do it.'”
The injury remains with her to this day: “The difference between me and the other rowers was clear. My left hand was much weaker or I didn’t have as much control over it. It took a lot of training for my neurons to function properly and I still notice the difference. But I accept myself as I am and I don’t blame the accident. The accident actually gave me the courage and determination to take on this challenge.”
With time to think about the summer and beyond, she reflected on how she could use her story. “I hope I can show other people with brain injuries that things can get better. I’ve already tried to go into schools and talk to kids. If you have a dream, it doesn’t matter how well you do in school, how much money you have, or where you come from. You just have to work hard for your dream. You don’t have to be someone special. I know, I’m just a normal girl. And, of course, I’m different. Everyone is different. But you just have to keep going.”
