Sophie Morgan has been focusing on her own wellbeing, both mentally and physically.
Writing her memoir Driving Forwards proved to be hugely cathartic, she reveals, and led her to begin a course of trauma therapy.
“I have post traumatic stress disorder from all the things that have happened to me,” says the Loose Women presenter, who celebrates her 38th birthday on Friday.
“And as much as I have coped very well, there are a huge number of issues that I need to work through since my car crash.”
That accident was in 2003, when Sophie was just 18 and had picked up her A-level results from her boarding school, Gordonstoun, in Scotland.
Driving four friends home in her car, she veered off the road and ended up trapped beneath it, suffering severe injuries that left her paralysed from the chest down.
Her friends escaped with minor injuries while Sophie spent months in hospital. She has been a wheelchair user for almost 20 years.
“The process of writing the book and dredging everything up encouraged me to reflect a lot,” says Sophie.
“I have fantastic coping mechanisms and have never really had therapy since my injury, but I’ve recently started EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing] therapy and I’ve been really benefiting from it.”
EMDR has been around since about 1990 and involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process painful memories. It is often used by the military for those with PTSD.
Sophie is hugely articulate and uses her platform to advocate for everyone with a disability.
Just before we spoke, her wheelchair had been damaged while on a flight from California. And appearing on Loose Women, she spoke passionately about why more needs to be done to make travel easier for disabled passengers.
“I’m constantly fighting online for awareness-raising or causes,” she nods. “There’s always a fight to be fought.”
Travelling around California, sometimes alone, meant she always had to think ahead, particularly when it came to exercising.
“I take dumbbells and a resistance band along with me everywhere to do weight training and stretches in my chair. It’s not easy. It’s about adapting. Everything is possible, it just takes time.
“As a wheelchair user you are quite limited in the kind of exercise you can do but I try to fit in an hour every day.
"If I’m at home I’ve got an exercise machine that I use to do about 40 minutes of cardio and I’ve now started integrating weight training too.
“I also subscribe to Nikki Walsh and Ben Clark’s Adapt to Perform online.
“They are brilliant because they are targeted for people who are wheelchair users.
“You won’t be suddenly hearing somebody telling you to do squats. They are really fantastic at understanding limitations.”
Sophie, who was part of the Paralympics presenting team in Tokyo in 2021, says sitting in a wheelchair for hours every day means you can develop ‘para belly’, where bloating becomes extremely uncomfortable.
“I’m paralysed from the chest down, which means my core muscles don’t engage. They don’t respond,” says Sophie. “As a result, the normal feeling of bloating or discomfort after eating is the same as anybody else in the morning. But throughout the day it will get gradually worse for me.
“It’s the nature of being sat down all day and the consequences of that. I can’t walk it off.
“Gut health is all connected to your immunity and your mood. I start with a shot of Symprove [a water-based probiotic] every morning before anything and it really helps me.
“I’ve noticed since I’ve started taking it, the bloating has gone down.
“I still have to be really vigilant in what I eat – nothing too gassy or heavy. I gravitate towards colourful foods that are healthy.
“I always have breakfast, which will be nuts and seeds, homemade granola with kefir, yoghurt and fresh fruits.
“Or maybe eggs, depending on how much time I’ve got.
“I gravitate to vegetables and soups in the evening.
“It’s all about portion control. I don’t mind eating something you might consider bad like fish and chips. I just won’t have as much. But if I can’t eat healthily, I certainly wouldn’t beat myself up.”
Sophie, who is single and lives in London, has a packed diary ahead of her this year.
As well as her regular slots on Loose Women, her series Living Wild: How To Change Your Life is currently on Channel 4 on Saturday nights and next month she is back presenting Crufts.
Prior to her crash, Sophie had planned to study law at Manchester University. Instead she returned to live with her parents John and Carol in East Sussex and began studying an art foundation course.
She still regularly paints and draws which she says is beneficial for her mental wellbeing. Sophie also keeps a journal.
Another joy for her is wind therapy.
“I like getting on the back of my adapted motorbike and going fast. I do that a lot.”
And it’s not all clean living – Sophie’s not averse to the odd glass of fizz.
“When it comes to fun, all the rules go out of the window,” she says.
“I love to let my hair down because I enjoy living life.”
- Living Wild: How to Change Your Life is screened on Saturdays, on Channel 4, at 8pm. Sophie’s book Driving Forwards is out now (Sphere, £9.99). For more information on gut health visit symprove.com.
