Laurie Squirrell has shown tremendous courage and resilience since a crash in America left the schoolgirl motocross star paralysed 12 years ago.
The Hitcham rider, who uses a wheelchair, defied the odds last summer when climbing back into the saddle of her old motorbike, a specially-adapted Yamaha 125cc, and racing across muddy fields. Surgeons said she would never ride again.
Now the 28-year-old has shown a new side to her bravery: zigzagging her way down the snow-covered slopes of Colorado at speeds of 60mph, in a bid to represent Great Britain at next year’s Winter Paralympics.
“I just love to compete,” she said.
“My bike accident was a shock but I realised that I had to accept what had happened. Since then I have been determined not to let what happened stop me from doing something I love.”
Once hailed as the most promising female motocross rider in the country, she is determined to be one of the best Paralympic skiers in the world next year.
She is training on a mono-ski, a new sport for people who are paralysed, using a specially-adapted wider single ski that is still controlled with poles. She is practicing with her trademark grit on her sit-ski machine to perfect her technique and eliminate risks.
“The sit-ski is an extraordinary machine. It’s like ordinary skiing but of course you have to adapt your technique because you are effectively sitting down,” she said.
“But the challenge is exactly the same. You push off and head down hill negotiating flags on the course just like ordinary downhill skiers.”
The next Winter Paralympics are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018. Laurie admits she has set herself an ambitious goal of reaching the required standard in just 12 months, but said she is “determined to get to the games eventually”.
She landed in Colorado, widely perceived as the best ski-centre for mono-skiers in the world, on January 3 and is set to return to Suffolk. Her trip has been self-funded.
Her dreams of becoming a world champion rider were cruelly ended after a shock accident while practicing for her first major race in America in November 2004.
Aged 16 and ranked as the best female rider in her age category in the UK, she crashed in an area of particularly boggy mud on the San Antonio track, flipped over the handlebars and broke her back when landing at the base.
But speaking from Colorado, she added: “Once a racer, always a racer.”
She has recently received a 2:1 honours degree in education and child studies from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and hopes to become a primary school teacher.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here