Ordinary people, Extraordinary Lives: Nikki Emerson - Nikki Emerson

In 2008 Nikki Emerson was driving back from university when she had a near-fatal car crash which broke her spine. Nikki spent ten weeks undergoing intensive physiotherapy and was told she'd never walk again. During this time in hospital she watched the Beijing Paralympics and was inspired by the athletes she saw on screen to take up Paralympic sport. She now competes against these same athletes internationally.

Nikki has won four medals at the 2010 U23 World Track Championships, bronze in the Great North Run and the end of the 2010 season she was ranked 6th in the world for the T53 800m and 7th in the world for the wheelchair marathon.

Riveting and revelatory, Nikki describes her struggles to adapt to her new life with honesty and humour. Hers is a story of an ordinary girl whose life, despite adversity, has become extraordinary.