When the lights go on, when the music begins, when the ringmaster announces her into the circus ring, Lucy Fraser has extra cause to be proud.

The 18-year-old joined the France-based Santus Circus not that long ago to perform her solo trapeze act but, when checking the rigging before her intended first performance, she slipped and fell from the trapeze, smashing both her wrists.

Lucy’s not from a circus family – but she’s full of the fire that drives circus people and while many would have given up and gone home to recuperate, she reacted by begging circus-owner Ernest Santus “Please give me a job until I’m healed – I want to stay on the show“.

Both arms in plaster, Lucy has spent the past few weeks selling tickets for the circus. And now, the minute she’s been able, Lucy’s back in the spotlight, gracefully suspended above the circus ring as though nothing had ever happened.

“I trained at a circus school – I wanted to join a traditional circus partly because of my admiration for the circus people,“ says Lucy.

“It’s a tough life, but they won’t let anything beat them. I’m proud to be accepted as a member of the close-knit circus community.“ The all-human Santus Circus: Le Cirque de France has travelled across the Channel to tour the south-east annually for several years and its popularity means it has now expanded to feature high-wire walkers and a flying trapeze act which claims to be the only opportunity in the UK for audiences to see the legendary triple somersault.

See the circus at Picketts Lock Centre, off A1055 Meridian Way, N9 0AS, from October 1 to 5. Details: santuscircus.co.uk