A circus performer who broke her neck in three places after falling from a trapeze has made a courageous return to the Big Top.

Megan Christian, 21, plummeted 18ft in front of horrified crowds in Sheerness, Kent, last summer, but has decided to brave the dizzying heights again.

The trapeze artist broke her neck in three places from the horror fall in the Santus Circus at Barton’s Point coastal park in July.

Luckily, an off-duty firefighter in the audience rushed to help Megan’s colleagues as she lay unconscious and an air ambulance was called to whisk her to the hospital.

The audience was in shock and Megan’s family, who couldn’t accompany her due to Covid restrictions, were left behind.

Yet just eight months after the traumatic plunge, Megan is back in the air with a new act.

Two of her spinal injuries have healed and one is supported by a metal pin.

Despite doctors warning her to stay clear of trapezes for at least six months, Megan had returned to what she loves by December.

She forced herself to face the failed trick again, practicing it at home, but decided to reinvent herself with a different routine.

She is now appearing in a giant heart-shaped prop at the circus in Maidstone until April 24.

Megan, who is from Iwade, Sittingbourne, told KentOnline: “You always know there is a risk. You are doing a job which is unnatural for the body.

“But it has made me think about things differently now that I have been given a second chance.

“Everyone said I was crazy to go back and that I should do something else, but the circus is my blood.

“When I see the expressions on the kids’ faces watching the show it just makes it all worthwhile. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”

She added: “I have a place at home where I practice – I got back up and made myself do that trick again because I didn’t want to have a mental block.

“But afterwards, I decided I needed a fresh start and bought a new heart-shaped prop.

“My new routine is simpler than before but the main thing was just to get up in the air again and start working.”

Some of last July’s audience happened to catch Megan’s horror fall on video, which circulated online before the circus asked all footage to be removed.

Megan said: “I felt perfectly fine that day and went through the first show with no problems. Then I fell in the second show.

“There wasn’t a problem with the rigging. It was just one of those things.

“It was a slip. I remember holding on and thinking ‘I’m going to fall’. I couldn’t stop myself because my body rotated with quite a force.”

At first, Megan thought she had just broken a shoulder.

She said: “When they took me to Medway Maritime Hospital and told me I had fractured my neck in three places it was a jaw-on-the-floor moment.

“A chill went over me because I hadn’t prepared for that at all. Suddenly I felt quite nervous. That only went away after the operation when I found I could still stand up.”

“I remember one of the doctors stroking my hair and telling me it would be fine and the nurses helping me take off my costume and make-up.”

Circus spokesman Chris Barltop also commented to the paper: “We are glad Megan is back in the air. She’s a gutsy girl. But that’s circus people for you.”

He said: “Safety nets and safety lunges are not always appropriate. If a performer is leaving contact with the trapeze to fly through the air, they would use a safety device.

“But in normal circumstances on a static trapeze, it would actually handicap the performer. As with many sports, there’s risk. But although any such events naturally make headlines, accidents are rare in circuses.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.