Trapeze artist from Slough 'overwhelmed' by surgery fundraiser support

A professional trapeze artist is ‘overwhelmed’ by the support she has received to fund surgery for her serious shoulder injury.

Bekki Bridges performs with Cirque Arlette Gruss and hopes to be back in the air by Christmas with two working shoulders following a ‘whole host’ of recently diagnosed problems.

The Farnham Royal resident requires surgery for two labral tears, a torn tendon, a stress fracture and a left shoulder that dislocates multiple times per day.

Like many self-employed performing artists working abroad, Bekki says she ‘falls through the gaps’ of government support, and the injury has left her grounded and unable to work or perform.

“In the culture of trapeze – and I think it’s the same for all circus people – they’re very much like, ‘you need to work through any pain you have’,” she added.

“We’re encouraged to ignore the pain – ‘it’s trapeze pain, everybody gets that, you need to warm up or do better conditioning’ – so unless you’re dying, you can’t have a day off.”

Bekki’s pain began in 2023 worsened this year. After visiting her GP during her break between contracts, she learned the problem needs to be surgically repaired.

“I thought if it’s been three months of rest and the pain is still this bad, I need to go and get it checked out because it’s a problem,” she said. “It all just snowballed from there.”

The 32-year-old was referred to a musculoskeletal outpatients (MSK) clinic by her GP in April and told that the earliest she could be triaged was at the end of August.

“A four-month wait just for the initial consultation,” she said. “You can appreciate that for any athlete or performer, this is a long wait to start treatment.

Coupled with the long NHS waiting list for an operation, Bekki decided to take matters into her own hands by raising the funds for treatment herself.

She has also been supported by Equity, the performing artists’ union, which put her in contact with the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).

“I can’t wait that long to go back to work because we don’t have the sick pay, we don’t have that kind of insurance,” she said.

“If I had been injured during a show, I might have got some help, but because it was an ongoing thing, not one nasty fall, that wasn’t there. It’s all very complicated.”

Originally a gymnast and coach, Bekki forged a career in trapeze after watching Cirque du Soleil and trying a trapeze class when she was 24.

“I just kept going back, and I learned really fast because I’d been a gymnast,” she said, and within six months, she was offered a contract as a ‘flyer’ in Switzerland in 2018.

Bekki said it’s a ‘tough position to be in’ as an artist whose career is tied to physical ability, and said ‘trapeze is my life’.

“It’s more than just work, it’s my identity, my joy, my everything,” she wrote on her GoFundMe page.

The fundraiser is for private surgery worth £10,142, which could be arranged within days, and so far she has raised £3,605.

“On the first day, every time someone made a donation, I kept crying,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe that people would get behind it, and people that I don’t even know have made big donations towards it.”

She said the social media support was ‘moving and overwhelming’, and she has been offered free rehabilitation from donors keen to see her ‘flying and performing’ again.

“The amount of kindness from everywhere, all around the world – it was overwhelming and I’m just so unbelievably grateful because it’s moved everything forward for me,” she added.

Visit the fundraiser at www.tinyurl.com/3ya5vd9p