Pole vaulter Henrietta Paxton turns to parasports after gym accident left her paralyzed

The Commonwealth Games athlete is keen to remain competitive and active despite suffering a spinal cord injury earlier this year

Henrietta Paxton, the former 4.35m pole vaulter who represented Scotland at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, wants to make her mark in wheelchair basketball and rugby after being left paralyzed from the waist down following a spinal cord injury suffered at the gym .

In May this year, the 41-year-old slipped during a squat, causing a 120kg barbell to crush her spine. The mother of two tried to adjust her position, but overcompensated, slamming herself forward and being crushed under the weight.

She was rushed to Southampton General Hospital, where doctors gave her the news that she had broken part of her spine and damaged her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

But she is undeterred and plans to continue with para sports and has already won a para badminton match at the Inter-Spinal Unit Games.

‘My career never really went the way I dreamed of it’ she said The times. “But what I’m most proud of is exactly that: my tenacity, the ability to keep picking myself up and keep coming back.

“From the start, the prognosis about the extent of the damage I had done to my spinal cord was not good. They really want to make sure you understand that, which I found difficult to deal with just because that’s never been my mentality.

“It’s not that I don’t accept that this is serious, but I have always been open to striving for the best result I can achieve. This was demonstrated with previous injuries, where I was again told that you will not come back from this and I did that.

“I believe that if you think there is no way forward, there won’t be, because you don’t chase things and keep trying.”

Paxton started his life as an athlete and long jumper for combined events. She has jumped over six metres, but she found more success in the pole vault, where she sits at number 11 in the UK’s all-time women’s pole vault rankings.

After the accident, she plans to return to the classroom, having worked as a gym teacher for the past few years. Adjusting to family life with her children, who are aged five and three, and her husband Shane Kelly, a former British athletics physiotherapist, also brings challenges.

So a JustGiving page has been set up with the aim of raising the £230,000 needed to make all parts of her home accessible.

“If your whole identity is based on being active, fit and healthy, it is very difficult to find yourself in a situation where, because I have never had to rely on anyone before, I now have to accept that in some situations I have to ask for help,” she says.

To support Henrietta Paxton’s fundraising efforts, see justgiving.com/crowdfunding/help

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