Para-driver hopes for 'swan song' world championship

BBC News

27-05-2025

Deborah Daniel's life changed in October 1997 when a speedboat she was on in St Lucia exploded, killing four and leaving her paralysed. It was two days before her wedding and she was just 29 years old.Ms Daniel, from Whixall, in Shropshire, was a police sergeant in Cannock at the time and even returned to work after being discharged, but eventually decided to retire due to ill-health.Her retirement led her to becoming a member of the British Para Driving Squad, and she has since represented the team in six world championships.
The sport involves drivers sitting on a carriage pulled by a horse taking part in a range of events including dressage and negotiating obstacles.The upcoming 2025 Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) Para Driving World Championships in Lahden, Germany, is to be her seventh and final international competition.
"You do get older and the body fails and things change so this will be my swan song, this will be my last international... seven is enough I think," said Ms Daniel.However, it is not as easy as turning up and competing - she needs to raise £6,500 to pay for things including training, travel, fuel costs, and transport for her carriages and pony - Capitola Mr Houdini."The reason that we don't get funding... is because we're not an Olympic sport," she said."We also have to raise funds for our management team - to take with us."This includes vets, human and horse physiotherapists and a caterer.To date, Ms Daniel's highest accolade has been team bronze."I would just love to bring home a different coloured medal other than a bronze," she told the BBC.
There were about 14 people on board the 36ft speedboat on the day she was injured - they had all planned to go scuba diving.One of the boat's two engines did not start, so she said a staff member lifted the hatch to start it manually, not knowing that there had been a fuel leak.It exploded, launching the boat, including Ms Daniel, 30ft in the air."I never was unconscious, I remember flying up in the air, flick-flacking, landing in the water, hitting the bottom and then coming to the surface," she said."I put my head under the water to check that my legs were there, because I couldn't feel them, and I instinctively knew I'd broken my back."I'd broken my back in five places... other than that, I didn't have a mark on me other than a bruise on my palm."
'I'm lucky to be alive'
Her fiance fractured some bones in the accident, but four other people were killed instantly.Ms Daniels described the ambulance that fetched her as "an old VW campervan with no straps"."We were put on surfboards," she added.She was flown to Martinique and had surgery, before being flown back to the UK about 12 days later. "I'm lucky to be alive," she said.
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