Nathalie McGloin

The only female tetraplegic racing driver in the world and co-founder of Spinal Track, charity supporting disabled drivers

- CHARLOTTE VOWDEN

TITLES DON'T EXCITE me, the things that make me feel amazing are what drive me, and racing makes me feel invincible. I suppose it's cool that I'm the world's first female tetraplegic racing driver, and it was nice to get a Guinness World Record for it in 2023, but I didn't do it to be the first: I just followed something I was passionate about.

When I think about growing up, I see it as before and after I broke my neck in a car crash on 16 September 1999. I was 16 and a passenger in my friend's car. No-one did anything wrong, it was just wrong place, wrong time. Before the accident, I'd been a bit of a tearaway. I'm from Bridlington, in East Yorkshire, and used to hang around with boy racers in car parks by the beach. It was less about the hatchbacks and more about the older guys who owned them; I had a huge crush on a guy with a white Nova.

After the accident, I was the girl who broke her neck. Bridlington is a small town, it's like it happened to everyone, and I was haunted by memories of my able-bodied self. I spent 11 months in hospital, finished my A-levels and went to university in Nottingham to study English. That had been my plan and I wasn't going to let my spinal injury stop me.

I'm paralysed from the chest down with limited finger function, but Uni was a new beginning. I was 19 and the same as everyone else because we were all living away from our parents and learning to be independent.

I learned to drive when I was 20, and passed first time, which I'm really proud of. My first car was a Peugeot 206, which I had adapted. It gave me the freedom to go wherever I wanted without help, and it hid my disability, which was huge for me back then. I have a very different attitude now.