WHEEL-LIFE STORIES 'DON'T CALL ME INSPIRATIONAL!'

Sophia Malthus and Indy Henman take a light-hearted look at disability in their new series

- Hayley McLarin.

Please don't call Sophia Malthus inspirational. You may not realise, but it can seem like a back-handed compliment.

The Aucklander was 19 when she was thrown from a racehorse, landing on a fence. She was paralysed from the neck down, impairing 87% of her body. Now studying law, Sophia uses her spare time to create content for social media on Instagram and TikTok (@itssophandindy), which has led to the production of the new series This Is Wheel Life.

"To be called inspiring is actually patronising," she says, without wanting to be any more insulting to someone who is in awe of what she has achieved since the 2016 accident.

"We [quadriplegics and tetraplegics] have been given this life just like you have been given your life. You're living it and I am not telling you you're inspirational."

Beside her sits her carer and cousin Indy Henman, who adds, "It's like they are saying, 'Wow, you're still happy even though you're disabled. It's like their expectations of you are far less than what you are doing.

'Instead, I would say Soph is very resilient. She just gets on with it. She accepted the injury pretty fast.

"She doesn't like the term inspiring, but I think she does motivate a lot of people. She shows that life doesn't stop when hardship happens. And when challenges come up, she just adapts and problem solves."