Woman paralysed after ‘neck folded like accordion’ in crash becomes ripped bodybuilder

RIPPED: The 33-year-old made a miraculous recovery and now competes as a bodybuilder

The buff beauty has competed in five competitions – finishing third in her first event – culminating in an appearance at the 2015 Arnold Classic, bodybuilding’s Olympics.

She was a sporty 16-year-old who had just been named her school basketball team’s MVP, when she was involved in the life-changing car accident in August 1999.

While driving home from a wedding with her sister, the car they were travelling in hit some gravel and flipped over once.

The roof crumpled and glass from the sun roof cut into Vanessa’s head.

“My neck just folded like an accordion – I was rushed to intensive care immediately but they had to keep me in traction for a week before they could operate,” she said.

“After that I was sent to the trauma ward and I had to wear a neck brace.”

Despite a successful operation, every X-ray and CAT scan that doctors performed showed Vanessa had a 100% chance that she would never walk again.

Even worse, their most optimistic prognosis was she only had a 50% possibility of being able to feed herself.

PARALYSED: Vanessa was deemed quadriplegic after horrific car crash

She said: “When they told me I was a quadriplegic my whole world collapsed, everything was taken away from me.

“I’d gone from being this really athletic girl to having no control over my body.

“I would wake up covered in my own waste, I needed to wear an adult diaper.

“If I had an itch, I couldn’t scratch it myself. I was completely dependent on other people to do everything for me.”

Incredibly, after only two and a half months, her severed nerves found a new way around her vertebrae and began to grow and reconnect.

When Vanessa left hospital five months later she was sat upright in a wheelchair and determined to make the most of her life.

Despite relying on a cane to help her walk, she started bodybuilding in 2012 after advice from her bodybuilder mum, Delphene Balan.

Vanessa said: “I had started to put a bit of weight on and didn’t know how to shift it.

“Mum had been bodybuilding for a few years and suggested I try lifting weights.

“After a few months, she said I had a talent for it and should think about competing – so I did.”

WINNER: The buff beauty has competed in five competitions – finishing third in her first even

Vanessa now works out twice a day, doing fasted cardio in the morning and a mixture of weights and cardio in the evenings.

While others might use dependency on a walking stick as an excuse to skip some exercises, she has found ways to modify her schedule.

Cardio can be completed on a stair stepper or elliptical and instead of weighted lunges for leg definition, she does walking lunges for 10 minutes on an inclined treadmill.

“After what I survived I want to make the most of every day,” she said. “I know that a disc could slip and I’m stuck as a vegetable again – because of that I make no excuses.”

In her first competition in late 2013, Vanessa finished in the top three at the Muscle Beach Fall Classic third place qualifying her for national competition.

She fits the contests around other commitments, including being a brand ambassador for RIVALUS and public speaker for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y) charity.

Despite the restraints, she still targets getting her professional bodybuilding card.

She said: “It’s tough when I have to compete against able bodied girls – they don’t have issues with working their legs, balance or flexing on stage.

“That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means I have to work for longer. I’m with a new coach now so I think 2016 could be epic.

“If anyone can help me be the best, he can.”