Just Believe To Achieve

Sammi Kinghorn broke her back aged 14, but she’s come a long way through sheer grit, determination and optimism, as her mother Elaine explains.

- Joan McFadden

As Elaine Kinghorn watches her daughter Sammi, now 22, race round the track in her wheelchair, she beams with pride.

Sammi is a record-breaking wheelchair racer. But just seven years ago, after a horrific accident, Elaine and her husband Niall never thought this would be possible. But Sammi is proving everyone wrong with her success.

Sammi was a sporty and enthusiastic teenager who planned to become a zoologist. But everything changed in December 2010 when she was helping her father clear snow on the farm where they live in the Borders.

Both she and her brother, Christopher, had known from an early age the need to take care around farm machinery.

But in a thoughtless moment, Sammi leapt on to the forklift truck her dad was driving. He couldn’t see her, and when the beam came down, she was crushed underneath it.

‘We called an ambulance immediately. At first, I hoped she was just winded,’ Elaine, 49, explains. ‘She was in and out of consciousness but once she reached hospital, we were told very quickly how serious it was and that Sammi had broken her back and would never walk again.

‘My first thoughts were, “That’s it. What has she got left now?” But before I could say anything, she said, “I know I’ll never walk again, so I just need to get on with it.”