SHE went on her first overseas cycling expedition and it almost killed her - on her birthday.
Singapore Management University (SMU) student Lesley Fu, 20, was biking with seven other teammates near Fairbanks in Alaska.
That was where a strong gust of wind blew her off her racing bicycle.
It happened on 20Jul, around 2pm, as she was travelling downhill and round a bend.
She lost her balance, flew off her bicycle and crashed to the ground, breaking her helmet in the process.
She lay on the ground motionless, bleeding from the face and was unconscious for several minutes.
What happened before and after that was a little hazy.
All she remembered was the whole team had been riding in a single file.
Miss Fu had been cycling behind the leader.
After the accident, paramedics arrived and she was taken away in an ambulance, her teammates told her later.
Miss Fu was rushed to a nearby hospital and was later air-lifted to Anchorage, Alaska's capital city.
Tests later revealed that she suffered from a fractured cheekbone and a mild concussion.
She was discharged after six days, and returned to Singapore on 28Jul.
The hospital bill was settled by her insurance company but she did not want to reveal details.
A relieved and thankful Miss Fu told The New Paper on Sunday: 'I was quite fortunate to survive the accident. My helmet saved my life.'
She and her friends were part of an annual SMU expedition to test their physical limits.
The New Paper had published a report on the team's preparation for the expedition on 21 Jun.
The eight had arrived in Anchorage on 2Jul to begin their biking adventure.
From Anchorage, the team's route would take the members 2,000km away to Skagway and finally to Juneau, their last destination, by ferry.
The first 600km was smooth-sailing, Miss Fu said. Everything went according to plan and they were due to arrive in the city of Fairbanks on the evening of 20 Jul.
BIRTHDAY
That day also happened to be Miss Fu's 20th birthday, and her companions were planning a surprise party for her that night.
She still does not know what the plan was because it was a party that was not to be.
'I woke up that day feeling enthusiastic about cycling,' she said. 'I was in a good mood. Maybe because it was my birthday.'
ERRATIC WEATHER
The weather had been erratic before that, with rain every other day. But it was dry on that day.
They set out from their camp at 11am and stopped once for lunch. After that, Miss Fu put in her best performance in the expedition.
For 44km, she took on the burden of leading the pack, helping to deflect the oncoming wind.
Her good form surprised even herself as she was the youngest and weakest member of the team, she said.
'I was the only one who had not done any sports before this expedition,' she said.
But misfortune loomed.
Even though the bikers had trained hard for six months in Singapore, nothing prepared them for the gusty winds of Alaska.
'The winds were much stronger than in Singapore,' Miss Fu said, 'and I might have been unprepared for that.'
A rare combination of unfavourable factors - sudden strong wind, a steep slope and a bend in the road - caused the mishap.
After the fall, she slipped in and out of consciousness, and remembers virtually nothing from the time of the accident - until two days later.
Most of what she knows was described to her by teammate Leong Jia Yong, who accompanied her to the hospital.
But for her teammates, who are still in Alaska, it was a harrowing experience.
One of them, Mr Jasbir Singh, 23, wrote on the team's blog: 'We were all stricken with fright and grief.'
He recounted that as they waited for an ambulance, some passers-by helped them to keep her warm, while others helped divert traffic.
Miss Fu was first sent to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where her condition stabilised.
But as a precaution, she was later transferred by helicopter to a better-equipped hospital 360km away in Anchorage. There, scans showed that there was no damage to her brain.
Upon hearing about the accident, her mother, a secondary school teacher, flew to Alaska to accompany her back to Singapore.
Last week, Miss Fu underwent minor surgery in Gleneagles Hospital to correct the double vision she was suffering from.
Her right eye is still swollen and the fracture on the right side of her skull might take a month or two to recover.
She has no scars from the accident, but has lost a tooth and chipped two others.
'I'm recovering quite well,' she said. 'There's still numbness in the right side of my face, but it's much better compared to just after the accident, when they couldn't even see my eye because of the bleeding and swelling.'
NO PHOBIA
So has the accident left her with a phobia for cycling? Quite the opposite.
'I'll definitely try to go on more expeditions in the future. All the more so, since I didn't complete this one.
'I'll just make sure I take more care in the future,' a determined Miss Fu told The New Paper on Sunday, adding that her bicycle was not damaged.
'I don't regret what I did. Even the two weeks I was there was an experience of a lifetime. You learn a lot about yourself during expeditions like these, and it's a great challenge.'
The rest of the team has since finished the expedition and paid her a touching tribute from Alaska on their blog: 'We still want to celebrate your birthday with you. Please get well soon. Ride on. We love you and miss you deeply.'
When contacted, SMU's dean of students, Associate Professor Low Aik Meng, said that the university has been in touch with Miss Fu and her family and has provided them assistance for her treatment and recovery.
He called her 'a courageous girl and a strong rider', adding that her helmet, part of stringent safety measures for the expedition, protected her from serious injury.
A spokesman for ComfortDelgro, the main sponsor of the expedition, said it was glad to hear that Miss Fu was recovering well.
The rest of the team will be back in Singapore next Thursday.
This article was first published in The New Paper on August 9, 2008.
