An inspirational teenager who became a trampolining champion despite losing both her arms and legs to meningitis now has her sights set on becoming a racing driver.
Isabelle Weall, 14, has been approached by Team Brit, a motor racing team of disabled drivers, with an offer to teach her how to drive a racing car.
Her parents Oliver Weall and Catherine Lloyd, both 43, have set up a JustGiving page to raise £5,200 to buy a simulator so she can learn to drive at home in Derby before moving on to a car with specially adapted controls.
Isabelle Weall who became a trampolining champion despite losing both her arms and legs to meningitis now hopes to become a racing driver
The teenager has been approached by Team Brit, a motor racing team of disabled drivers
Isabelle has also been inspiring other teenagers suffering hardships by launching her own YouTube channel in which she does her own beauty tutorials
Isabelle’s latest venture comes just a month after she won the Young Achiever award at the Pride of Sport ceremony which recognises and celebrates the unsung heroes of grassroots sport.
Seven years ago Isabelle was rushed to hospital when she collapsed just hours after going to school as normal.
Her parents were warned she had just hours to live after she suffered a heart attack and multiple organ failure.
She battled back but surgeons were forced to amputate both arms and legs after she was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
When she recovered from surgery she spent more than two months in hospital and a further eight months in a wheelchair before being fitted with prosthetic limbs in 2011.
Five years after learning to walk again Isabelle stunned medics and her family by winning the national Disability Category Two Novice Competition in December 2015.
The schoolgirl then won the Young Achiever award at a ceremony last month.
She has also been inspiring other teens suffering hardships by launching her own YouTube channel in which she does her own beauty tutorials.
At 14, Isabelle has become a top trampolinist and has her own YouTube channel doing make up tutorials – she now wants to conquer the world of motorsport
The trampolining champion now wants to make it as a racing driver.
Speaking to The Times she said: ‘I think I should be all right going fast, because I do trampolining, which is quite a fast, adrenaline-rush sport. I’m not really scared.’
She added: ‘I’m really excited. My dad told me about it. It was a question, if I wanted to do it or not. I was like, ‘You don’t even need to ask if I want to do that. Of course I want to do it’, because I have always said that when I am old enough I want to drive and have my own car.’
Writing on the JustGiving page Isabelle’s father wrote: ‘Team Brit had seen Izzy’s story and invited her to a race to meet the team.
‘Now, they want to develop an advanced system that will allow Izzy to not only drive a car, but to race.
‘This is an opportunity we never thought Izzy would have. By developing a system like this, that could allow a quadruple amputee to consider a career in motorsport, we are not only giving Izzy a chance we had never dreamed of, but we are paving the way for other disabled drivers across the world to enter the world of racing.’
A racing team which normally works with injured war veterans has invited Izzy to join them
Isabelle’s family are trying to raise £5,200 to buy a simulator so she can learn to drive at home in Derby before moving on to a car with specially adapted controls
Dave Player, founder of Team Brit, said they approached the schoolgirl after seeing her on YouTube.
He said: ‘Straight away her personality just jumps out of the screen. What a fantastic, positive attitude. It is exactly the same attitude as our drivers, they have become injured, but not let their injuries govern them.
‘She does not go on about her disability, she talks about the things she can do.’