Pole vaulter Henrietta Paxton targets para-sport after gymnasium accident left her paralysed

Commonwealth Video games athlete is eager to stay aggressive and lively regardless of spinal harm earlier this 12 months

Henrietta Paxton, the previous 4.35m pole vaulter who competed for Scotland within the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Video games, is aiming to make her mark in wheelchair basketball and rugby after being paralysed from the waist down following a spinal harm she sustained within the gymnasium.

In Could this 12 months the 41-year-old slipped whereas doing a squat, inflicting a 120kg barbell to crush her backbone. The mum-of-two tried to readjust her stance, however overcompensated — knocking herself ahead and being crushed below the load.

She was rushed to Southampton Basic Hospital the place medical doctors instructed her the information that she’d damaged a part of her backbone and broken her spinal twine, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.

Undeterred, although, she is plans to proceed doing para sports activities and has already gained a para-badminton contest on the Inter-Spinal Unit Video games.

“My profession by no means actually went the way in which I dreamed of it going,” she instructed The Instances. “However the factor I’m most happy with is precisely that: my tenacity, the power to maintain choosing myself up and preserve coming again.

Henrietta Paxton (Mark Shearman)

“From the off, the prognosis on the extent of injury I did to my spinal twine was not good. They’re very eager to just be sure you perceive that, which I discovered troublesome to take care of simply because that’s by no means been my mindset.

“It’s not that I don’t settle for that that is severe however I’ve all the time been open-minded to pushing for the perfect final result I can get. That was demonstrated in earlier accidents the place once more I used to be instructed you’re not going to get again from this and I did.

“I’m of the mindset that when you don’t suppose there’s any method ahead, there’s not going to be, since you’re not going to chase issues down and also you’re not going to maintain attempting.”

Paxton started life as a mixed occasions athlete and lengthy jumper. She has jumped effectively over six metres however she discovered extra success in pole vault the place she sits No.11 on the UK all-time ladies’s pole vault rankings.

Following the accident she is planning to return to the classroom as she has labored in recent times as a PE instructor. Adapting to house life together with her kids, who’re aged 5 and three, with husband Shane Kelly, a former UK Athletics physio, brings its challenges too.

Given this, a JustGiving web page has been arrange with the objective of elevating the £230,000 required to make all components of her home accessible.

“When your entire id relies round being lively and match and wholesome, it’s actually laborious to re-find your self in a state of affairs the place, having by no means needed to depend on anybody earlier than, I now have to simply accept that in some conditions I do need to ask for assist,” she says.

To assist Henrietta Paxton’s fundraising, see justgiving.com/crowdfunding/helphen

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