Nicki was knocked down aged 9. She is now in her 20s.

I campaign tirelessly for road safety education and regularly talk to children in local schools around Doncaster, telling them how important it is to follow road safety rules. Why? Because when I was just 9 years old, I was knocked down and my life has never been the same since.

It was an innocent family day out hunting for chestnuts. I ran across road to see my mum and a car came over the hill, out of nowhere and hit me. I was unconscious and in a coma for two months. Doctors told my parents that I would never walk or talk again.

I’ve proved doctors wrong though and I can walk and talk. But the effects of that day will live with me forever because I have brain damage. I’m 24 now and I tell people that “A disability is like a tattoo, once you’ve got it, it stays with you for life.” I don’t live in my disability; it lives in me. In my body.

I also write poetry to express how I feel. I would like to share one with you:

ROOT OF LIFE

I am the root inside me,
I am that garden they said would never grow,
I shall be the one they reflect upon,
I hold that key to the garden that they shaded from the sun,
I knew that what I had wasn’t what I wanted in the garden of pride,
But I do believe things happen for a reason
and I know this is a weird way of making my garden grow
But for each wave of an ocean to flow,
You have to hope that one day the movement will flow;
going to where it should go,
People seem to think I could have handled it better if I had put my heart into it,
right from the start.
Having my accident has helped me realise just how precious
each and every one of our bodies are,
the brain is also a very precious gift of life that we all have.
You see nothing in life has no reason for happening;
everything happens for a reason,
it just takes time to search your heart soul and all it’s surrounding’s,
to realise why it happened.
What ever happens in my life affects me,
but I think that each person can handle anything life throws them,
if they want to.