From saddle to paddle for woman with spine injury

A former events rider is preparing to represent Great Britain at the para-canoe world championships, two years after a fall changed her life.

Saffron Cresswell, 25, from Malvern in Worcestershire, fell from her horse in 2024 and suffered a spinal cord injury which left her paralysed.

She is now set to represent her country in a completely different sport less than a year after discovering it, taking up para-canoeing at Leamington Spa Canoe Club on the River Leam.

"It's a beautiful sport to be involved in," she said ahead of the International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint and Para-Canoe World Championships in Poznan, Poland, which will run from Wednesday to Sunday.

Equestrian was central to Cresswell's life before her accident. She was a full-time event rider, winning three European medals for Great Britain, running a business from home and riding between 12 and 15 horses a day.

After becoming paralysed, she was determined to find something that would give her the same sense of purpose. She tried wheelchair racing, tennis, skiing and waterskiing, even completing two half marathons in a wheelchair last year.

Last December, 18 months after her fall, she sat in a canoe for the first time.

"Canoeing's been a huge breakthrough in me wanting to pursue a sport," she said.

"Canoeing's a technical sport and coming from horse riding, which is also technical-based, was something I really thrived off."

Cresswell said competing at a world championship had been unimaginable when she was recovering from her accident.

"Not being able to dress myself or go to the toilet or get out of bed or move was a huge thing to deal with," she said.

Even at the beginning of this year, a place at the world championships was not something she expected. "It wasn't on my bingo card," she said.

She added the speed of her progress had surprised her, saying: "I think when you're in it you don't really realise how quick it's been."

She described travelling to Poznan for the competition as "quite crazy", but receiving her GB kit had made it feel real.

"That feeling of picking up the GB kit and knowing that I'll be representing my country again is really special," she said.

Her family will come to Poland to watch her compete.

"They've been really supportive through everything that's happened over the last two years," Cresswell said. "Two years today I was still bedbound. Now I'm on the water and they're all flying out to Poland to watch."

Cresswell is part of the Women's Sport Trust's Unlocked programme, which supports elite female athletes as they develop their careers in sport.

A place at the Paralympics is now her long-term ambition.

"It seems so far off at the moment," she said. "But a Paralympic goal would be massive for me in the future."

She said she tried to focus on what she could do rather than what her disability prevented her from doing.

"I always say 'think about the things you can do and not the things you can't'," she explained. "If I can live by that motto then it keeps me positive and enjoying my life.

"I see myself as lucky. I'm still in a position where I can come out, do sport, be outside, I work, I coach a lot of equestrian, I drive all over the country and I get to live a really fulfilled life."

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