Driving Forwards: A journey of resilience and empowerment after life-changing injury

Description

On the precipice of starting her adult life, aged eighteen, Sophie, a rebellious and incorrigible wild child, crashed her car and was instantly paralysed from the chest down. Rushed to hospital, everything she had dreamed for her life was instantly forgotten and her journey to rediscover herself and build a different life began. But being told she would never walk again would come to be the least of her concerns. Over the next eighteen years, as she strived to come to terms with the change in her body, her relationships were put to the test; she has had to learn to cope with the many unexpected and unpredictable setbacks of living with paralysis; she has had to overcome her own and other people's perceptions of disability and explore the limits of her abilities, all whilst searching for love, acceptance, meaning, identity, and purpose. Driving Forwards is a remarkable and powerful memoir, detailing Sophie's life-changing injury, her recovery, and her life since. Strikingly honest, her story is unusual and yet relatable, inspiring us to see how adversity can be channelled into opportunity and how ongoing resilience can ultimately lead to empowerment.

Sophie is an award-winning disability advocate, inclusion consultant and one of the first, and only, female disabled television hosts in the world. Sophie is determined to channel her adversity into opportunity and she sees her challenges as a unique chance for creativity, she has become the ultimate agent for change, voted in the Top 10 most influential people with a disability in the UK three years in a row. She is best known for her role as one of the lead presenters of the Paralympic Games (Channel 4) for nearly a decade. In addition to sports broadcasting, she fronts her own travel series (Living Wild), consumer and current affairs documentaries (Dispatches & Unreported World) and is a well-known television personality (ITV's 'Loose Women'). Sophie is Global Ambassador for brands such as Toyota and Can-Am, and has consulted for international companies such as Target, Virgin Media, Air BnB, John Lewis and more. She is also patron of several charities (Scope, Back Up), Global Ambassador for Women's Rights and Inclusive Education for Leonard Cheshire and on the Special Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch, on behalf of whom she spoke at the United Nations.

A book that'll change your perspective on life. You'll not be able to put it down. * Fearne Cotton * What I love about this book is it's not about "overcoming disability". Instead, it's about learning how to live a good disabled life - one full of friends, love, opportunities and fun. Disabled joy is so rarely seen, but Sophie Morgan has it in spades. * Lucy Webster, Political journalist, writer and disability advocate * Wrenchingly honest...inspirational, eye-opening and deeply moving * Mail on Sunday *