HER DETERMINATION TO LIVE LIFE TO THE MAX
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of f laws in how people with disabilities are treated here, this country is more forward thinking than most.”
In 2008 she appeared on Britain’s Missing Top Model, a televised modelling competition for disabled women. It led to a job modelling Stella McCartney’s Adidas London 2012 collection.
Sophie, who runs boutique arts company Love Lines and property development business Empire Investments, said: “I started to realise how little representation there was for young disabled women. We were practically invisible and I wanted to change that.”
When she is not filming or drawing. Sophie is campaigning on unsafe driving and the normalisation of disability.
In 2012 she filmed a BBC TV documentary, Licence To Kill, in the hope of educating teenagers on the dangers of inexperienced drivers. Sophie, who was one of the first people to try out the Rex Bionics exoskeleton which allows paralysed people to walk again, said: “I often talk to young people about dangerous driving in the hope I can change their attitudes by telling them my story.”
Despite all that has happened to her, Sophie is not bitter and has no regrets. She said: “I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and this was the path my life was destined to take.
“Of course I wish the crash had never happened but it is not the worst thing that could have happened.
“It’s been 13 years since the accident and going to Rio is a great way to celebrate how far I have come and everything I have done.”