‘I'm no longer angry about losing my leg in the Smiler crash'

Alton Towers crash survivor Vicky Balch, 24, from Preston, tells new how on the fifth anniversary of the disaster, she can finally start to put events of that horrifying day behind her

- LEBBY EYRES

Every year, as 2 June approaches, the anniversary of the Alton Towers Smiler ride crash, I find myself wondering what might have been.

Before I got on that rollercoaster, I was a happy-go-lucky 19-year-old with a bright future ahead of me. I was determined to get my beauty degree and then travel the world.

Just a few minutes later, those dreams came to an end. The carriage I was sitting in crashed into an empty one that had got stuck on the track ahead – but no one operating the ride had noticed it was there.

I saw the carriage up ahead but blacked out for a few seconds following the collision. When I came to, the carriage was swaying and hanging at a 45 degree angle. Incredibly, even though I was screaming in pain, along with other victims including Leah Washington, the workers on the ground didn’t think we were seriously injured. It took them 17 minutes to call 999.

When I look back now, the hours we were trapped up there are a blur, but while we were waiting to be rescued it felt like a lifetime. I remember the pain as they cut the bar to set us free. They gave us ketamine and painkillers and I recall wanting to sleep, but someone was holding my hand and telling me not to.

I knew my leg injury was serious and I remember thinking, ”I’ll never be able to walk again.” But I didn’t think I would lose my leg. In the weeks after the crash, I had seven operations as surgeons battled to save it. But then I started to go downhill. I was sleeping a lot and felt awful. It turned out I had sepsis into the bone.

“It smells bad,” my surgeon said. “We need to operate, but if we do have to amputate, do you want us to wake you up first, or just do it?”