Miracle Survivor Sophie Nothing Can Stop Me Now!

The gutsy teen’s living life in the fast lane

- Rose Fyoler

Making sure her bright yellow L plates are in place, Sophie Delezio jumps behind the wheel of her family’s specially modified car and cheerily waves goodbye. The 17-year-old loves to hit the road and has bravely tackled learning to drive like every other challenge – with grace and a pinch of that trademark determination.

Sophie even clocked up the required 120 hours for her Australian licence in a record eight months, thanks to long daily drives to and from school and around Sydney every weekend – always with one of her parents or a carer beside her in the passenger seat.

“I’m in heaven as long as I’m the one in the driver’s seat and in control,” she grins. “I just love to drive. I enjoy the way it makes me feel – free!”

Freedom means everything to Sophie, the beautiful little girl in bandages and a fairy dress that Kiwis and Aussies fell in love with as she recovered from not one, but two near-fatal accidents in her childhood.

The first – when she was trapped beneath a burning car that crashed through a gate at her Sydney childcare centre nearly 15 years ago – was most horrific, causing burns to more than 85% of her body. The accident cost the then-toddler most of her skin, her right ear, the fingers of her right hand and both lower legs.