'I thought I'd have to get wed in PJs'

Disabled bride-to-be Amelia Peckham almost stopped searching for the gown of her dreams after wedding shop staff left her feeling humiliated

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WHEN Amelia Peckham walked down the aisle at her wedding in 2016 it was the culmination of months of gruelling physical prep, not to mention 11 years of physio after a quad-bike crash left her paralysed from the waist down.

"I was shaking when I got to the church," she recalls. "It was the first time I had everyone in one room who had been there for me after the accident.

"I wanted to make them proud, but didn't want everyone to just see my injury."

It was a moment Amelia, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, never thought she'd have after her accident. In 2005, as a 19-year-old, she was riding quad bikes with two friends in Scotland and hit a pothole, flipping over.

"We fell down a very steep drop into a river, and I came off first and rolled," she says. "My hips got stuck, and the front of me kept going, so I literally smashed one vertebra in the middle of my back.

"Immediately, I lost the feeling and movement from the waist down. It was shocking, and within 24 hours, I was told, 'You'll be disabled for life'. It was very clear I wouldn't walk again."

During 10 weeks in hospital, Amelia opted for spinal reconstruction surgery, which was a success, giving her hope that she might move her legs again.

"They were very clear I wouldn't walk unaided again, and if I did, it would be with crutches, a wheelchair or a Zimmer frame - they just didn't know at the time."