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How a positive mental attitude to a life-changing accident helped wheelchair athlete Samantha Kinghorn become a world-beater

17 May 2018

A farming accident when she was 14 years old left Samantha Kinghorn in hospital for half a year — and paralysed from the waist down.

You could have forgiven her for feeling hard done by. Instead she turned her situation into a positive, inspirational message.

As part of 大象传媒 Scotland’s In My Mind series, Samantha discussed the approach she has taken towards her mental health:-

UK Paralympian Samatha Kinghorn discusses her personal resilience after an accident which left her paralysed

Samantha was inspired by the people around her in hospital as a young teenager.

From six months in hospital to acceptance

The accident occurred as Samantha played on the forklift her father was using to clear a path at their snowed-in farm.

“I thought my dad had seen I was there,” she recalled — but he hadn’t and, as the beam and bucket lowered, she was crushed.

“The first feeling I felt was guilt. ‘I’m gonna die and my dad’s gonna think that he’s killed me.’”

Kinghorn recalls horrible accident

Samantha Kinghorn recalls horrible home accident

in Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital.

It was the little things – like not being able to wear heels anymore – that were the hardest to get over.

I couldn鈥檛 wear heels anymore and it made me really angry.

Things like that made her realise the she was no longer the same as she used to be.

A glance around the ward, however, was enough to start the change in Samantha’s mindset.

“I saw there were people far more affected than I was. [There were] these people who just didn’t let it bother them at all.

“Every time you passed them, they’d still always smile. They used to make me feel like ‘if they can do it, then I can get on with this’.”

A rising star in para-athletics

Having competed in Commonwealth Games, Paralympics and World Para-athletics Championships, Samantha is intent on harnessing her mental strength and positive attitude to achieve even greater things within the sport of wheelchair racing.

Samantha elsewhere on the 大象传媒

In My Mind 鈥� four short films about mental health

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