In 2017, whilst on a motorcycling touring holiday in Morocco my husband and I were driving off-road. At first it was fine but then we came to a damp patch, the front tyre clogged up with wet clay and the bike wouldn't turn. We both fell over to the left and being on the back I fell from about eight feet onto the left side of my head. From that height it was quite a heavy impact but my crash helmet was undamaged and neither of us appeared to have any ill-effects.

However, three days later I collapsed in our hotel. My husband thought I was dead but it turned out to be a subdural haematoma caused by three days of bleeding into my brain so I was rushed to hospital.

The hospital operated on me that night and I was there for about four days. Soon after I was admitted to the Royal London in Whitechapel. I was there for about another week to build up my strength and make sure I could walk, talk and balance and that there was no lasting evidence of my brain injury.

In order to help him deal with the situation my husband had emailed all my friends to keep them updated so later on I was inundated with inquiries as to my health.

One particular group who are mostly mums and grandmas, proceeded to tell me I should be more careful and shouldn't go near a motorcycle again. I thought this was most unfair as I wasn't even driving!

The year after all this we were invited on a motorcycle touring holiday to Sicily and I was in two minds whether to go so did a trial run with my husband. During this I decided if anything at all felt wrong I'd stay at home and let my husband go on his own. However it all felt fine and at the first coffee stop I treated myself to a little alcohol to celebrate being back.

A year after that I got my licence back from the DVLA who had banned me for a year in case of seizures and my husband took me out to a quiet car park just to see how I got on back on the bike. Everything was fine and I contemplated driving on the road but couldn't quite pluck up the courage. However I was pleased with my progress and thought I'd wait until this spring to go back on the road.

People who are motorcyclists see my caution as understandable given the circumstances and point out that it was a very rare set of circumstances which caused my injury which would make it unlikely to happen again, whereas those who are non-motorcycling friends think I'm mad to even consider it and they are not doing much for my confidence.

The upshot is I'm not sure what to do now, I feel if I don't act soon I'll lose my independence and be stuck on the trains and busses forever. I'd like to get back on the road and feel confident enough but could really do with some advice.

Thanks

Cathy

A Moodscope member.