‘It is my medication, my home, my lifeline’: How cycling helps Julie Hooper pedal through pain

July 5, 2017, is a day Julie Hooper will never forget. The Melburnian’s life changed forever on that day when she was crushed by a 30-tonne sweeper truck.

The former Welsh and British time trial national champion suffered life threatening injuries when she was pinned between a wall and the truck.

“I remember seeing my collarbone come up before my eyes. I heard all these popping sounds. They were my ribs breaking front and back and all the bony prominences being cracked off my spine. And then an almighty crack like a clack of thunder - that was my pelvis being broken into six pieces and it being broken off my spine,” she recalls.

“I punctured my lungs, broke my eye-socket, split open my head both sides, cranial nerve damage, tore my quad off the bone and managed to die twice but was brought back - or rather fought back. I didn’t want to go.”

Julie Hooper started cycling in 1994 and became a Welsh and British national champion. 

Lucky to be alive, Julie was in a coma for a week, in ICU for another week, and spent four months in hospital recovering and undergoing some 20 operations.

She has since had a further 10 operations, and the accident has left Julie with permanent disabilities and chronic pain for the rest of her life.

She has no feeling, motor function or sensory function in her right leg and left quad, and is pinned together by screws and plates in her pelvis, hips and spine.

Every time she breathes it hurts, a constant reminder of that day.

But despite this, Julie hasn’t let the accident stop her from continuing to pursue her passion of riding and racing bikes.

Even while in hospital she continued to pedal through recovery. She was given a set of pedals to use in her wheelchair which she said she used religiously to help get blood flowing.

And when she left hospital, despite her restricted range of motion in her back, her dad modified her road bike to a flat bar to allow her to ride on the turbo trainer.

“Cycling is my drug of choice and it’s also empowering because I am in charge of that pain,” Julie said.

“Cycling was always my salvation but now it is my medication, my home, my lifeline. It helps me cope with my anxiety, my PTSD, my nightmares and my pain. It reminds me that life is simple - you just put one foot in front of the other - one stroke after another - the world keeps turning, life goes on and what an amazing life it is.”

Julie, now 51, started cycling in 1994 and had a natural flair for racing.

She was quickly picked up by the Welsh Squad and won Welsh and British time trial championships and road races. She won the Tour of Dublin 2000, was British 50-mile Time Trial champion that year also, and was always on a podium in a European stage races.

Julie became the C5 national road race and time trial champion earlier this year. Photo: Josh Chadwick

Now, with the support of her family, and close support network, which she calls ‘Julie’s Angels’, Julie is back riding and racing. She is now classified as a C5 para-cyclist, and also competes in Masters C grade races.

Earlier this year she became the C5 national road race and time trial champion at Ballarat, and won the C5 road race and time trial at Oceania Championships.

“I have been humbled and am so very grateful for everyone’s kindness, generosity, compassion, love and support. I am so lucky,” Julie said.

“My body has adapted to no use in my leg and to everyone you’d think there was nothing wrong with it - I walk, I ride but it’s an illusion and I’ve worked very hard to make it so.

"My hip flexors and lumbar spine do the work to pull my leg through for walking and because my feet are clipped into the bike my leg goes round but it’s the left leg and my body doing the work for the right leg.”

Later this month, Julie will be one of more than 600 riders competing at the AusCycling Masters and Junior Road National Championships in Shepparton.

“I have never raced at the masters’ champs before. It will be my first time and I’m intrigued and excited to see how I and my one leg and broken body go against all these awesome and inspiring two-legged masters women. I have the utmost respect for them and know it will be very tough.”

While life, and riding, is a lot different these days compared to when Julie first started cycling, her love of the sport hasn’t faded.

“I love long rides. I’m a freak of nature in that I am naturally an endurance athlete and I like nothing better than to ride all day every day. I love the freedom, the fact you are always moving forward just like in life. It doesn’t matter how slow you go you will still get there.”

Main photo: Josh Chadwick