King's Lynn Stars rider opens up about horror crash at Peterborough
Lewis Kerr has opened up about the life-threatening injuries he sustained after a horror crash at Peterborough four-and-a-half years ago.
The popular King's Lynn Stars rider revealed his 2015 head injury meant that he couldn't remember the house he had lived in for three years.
The Dersingham-based speedway rider required extensive treatment, both mental and physical, after the accident – and recalled how a simple task like asking for a haircut was difficult due to how his brain was affected.
Kerr sustained the injuries on Sunday, August 2, 2015, and he was speaking about the aftermath at the recent Evening With Lewis Kerr hosted by the club.
He said about the exercises used to gauge his recovery process: “In terms of recovering from it, it was tough.
“On the outside, I looked just as I did before the accident but it was really hard when I was in hospital.
“I had to do some rehab, some physio. I had to do some exercises. It sounds silly, really: I had to go down to the barber's and walk in there and ask how much a gent's haircut was.
“That sounds pretty easy, but I don't know what it was but it was the hardest thing in my life to go there and ask how much that was.”
The 30-year-old continued: “I had to go into a shop and read what was on The Sun newspaper headline. There were a few little things like that and if I could complete them, then I could get out.”
Medical staff at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge were astonished that Kerr was discharged after just ten days but that was just the beginning: overall his recovery regime was longer and more involved than that.
“It sounds daft, yes, but it was confusing learning to stand up again, learning to walk, to walk up stairs; all the little things – it was really, really tough,” he added.
Adjusting to life again was not straightforward, but thanks to his wife Jessie and his family, Kerr made a complete recovery: “I was hounding them to get out because I thought I was okay. I managed to get home and then as soon as I got home I realised I wasn't okay.
“I had bad insomnia; I couldn't sleep. I was at the end of the bed in the mornings at 5.30 to 6am fully-dressed saying to Jessie: Well, what are we going to do today?
“Where I used to live, I lived there for three years and I couldn't remember being there at all, so that was quite scary. So we left there and moved in with mum and dad because we were buying a house at that time.
“I had some great memories in that house, but at the time, I couldn't remember living there.”
