Sophie Morgan

Happy Place

Fearne Cotton

Society & Culture, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Relationships, Personal Journals

4.6 • 15.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2022

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At 18 years old, Sophie Morgan was in a car crash, and was instantly paralysed from the chest down. Eighteen years on, she is now one of the only TV presenter’s in the world with a physical disability. She’s also an artist and an award-winning disability advocate. Sophie speaks passionately about how adversity influences her life to be filled with more gratitude.

In this chat with Fearne, Sophie talks about how, after her injury, she felt as paralysed by fear as she was by her physical body, but as she adapted to her body, and the inaccessible world around her, she found ways to embrace her situation, to throw herself into physical challenges and test the limits of her ability, so that ultimately she became more alive, more purposefully and more fulfilled in life. She and Fearne also share an admiration for Mexican painting, the icon, Frida Kahlo, and they chat about how art can bring us all back to life.

Sophie’s first book, a powerful and remarkable memoir, that Fearne said “will change your perspective on life,” called ‘Driving Forwards’ will be available to buy in hardback, e-book, and as an audiobook from March 17th.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Happy Place with me, Fern Cotton.
0:05.8	This is the podcast where we can expand our minds by learning more about both ourselves
0:10.8	and the world around us.
0:12.9	Today I'm meeting Sophie Morgan.
0:15.7	I had this idea that I was paralyzed and I was frightened of a lot of stuff.
0:20.8	I was frightened of my body, I was frightened of other people's perceptions of me, I was
0:24.9	frightened of the wheelchair, I was frightened of falling out of it, I was frightened of
0:28.2	a lot of fear.
0:29.2	So I realised that look if you're going to let yourself feel fear, you're going to be
0:32.4	more paralyzed than you already are.
0:35.4	Then I started to realise there was this liberated feeling of, alright you're frightened,
0:40.1	but that's okay just move towards it.
0:41.7	Sophie was in a car crash when she was 18 years old and was instantly paralyzed from the
0:46.6	chest down.
0:48.1	She's now a TV presenter, writer and award-winning disability activist.
0:53.0	But in the 18 years since she was paralyzed, she's had to do a lot of work to overcome
0:57.8	both other peoples and her own perceptions of disability.
1:03.0	Driving forwards is the name of her soon to be published incredible memoir.
1:08.4	I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy and I completely devoured it.
1:13.4	I could not put this book down.
1:16.8	It is incredible.
1:19.0	She unflinchingly looks at what it's like to navigate our Ableist world in a wheelchair,
	...

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