SORRY, SOPHIE – BUT YOU ARE INSPIRING

Driving Forwards: A Journey Of Resilience And Empowerment After Life-Changing Injury Sophie L. Morgan Sphere €22

Sophie Morgan (right) says she has two birthdays. The first is the date she was born 37 years ago. The second is her A-level results day when, aged 18, she was paralysed from the waist down in a car crash and her new life began.

An ‘incorrigible wild child’, Morgan found herself living out her ‘most feared’ experience, with no hope of a cure. Her mother secretly vowed if the injuries didn’t kill her daughter, she’d put her out of her misery with a pillow over her face. But the pair’s mindset changed from despairing to determined.

Within months of her discharge, she was driving, skimobiling in Canada and winning a place at art school. She has since covered three Paralympics for Channel 4 and, most recently, achieved her ambition of presenting shows with no relevance to her disability.

Yet this memoir is very far from the ‘triumph over tragedy’ tale you might expect – and a lot better for that. Morgan’s wrenchingly honest narrative is full of (literally) agonising setbacks. An abscess from an allergic reaction to a plaster means that to this day, she must lie – sometimes for months – on her front to prevent it worsening. A televised trek across South America ended with her hospitalised with amoebic dysentery. She realises that despite her bloody-mindedness, some barriers are simply ‘too high… to overcome’.

She’s constantly ‘dehumanised’, accused by strangers of being a benefits scrounger, while also patronised as ‘inspirational’ – as she dryly puts it – for ‘crossing a restaurant to go to the toilet’. She finds the adjective insulting, but there’s no doubt this book is inspirational, eye-opening and deeply moving.