A journey of resilience and empowerment after a life-changing injury…
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 the 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, and purpose.
Driving Forwards is a remarkable and powerful memoir, detailing Sophie’s life-changing injury, her recovery, and her life since. It is also a book about family, friends, fierce love in all its forms, identity, and meaning. Searingly 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.
The book is released by Little Brown tomorrow (Thursday, March 17th) by Little Brown. RRP: £16.99.
Sophie L. Morgan is an award-winning disability advocate, inclusion consultant and one of the first, and only, female disabled television hosts in the world. Determined to channel her adversity into opportunity, she sees her challenges as a unique chance for creativity and 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 for Channel 4 for nearly a decade and also coverage of Crufts (pictured) for the network. In addition to sports broadcasting, she fronts her own travel series Living Wild, consumer and current affairs documentaries Dispatches and Unreported World and is a well-known television personality on shows such as 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 to note just a few. She is also a patron of several charities, 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.
