Hot rod racer Gemma Trotter impresses Emma Hawes with her driving skills and her love of life.

As the gleaming Ford Focus screams round the corner into the car park, a grinning elfin-faced teenager behind the wheel, I realise it can only be Gemma Trotter, the 18-year-old hot rod racer I have come to meet.

The Ford might not be her race car, but she certainly drives like a pro on and off the track. She pulls effortlessly out into busy traffic that would have daunted many people.

It seems incredible that today is the fourth anniversary of a car crash that shattered the bones in her left leg, leading to 24 operations and finally the amputation of her leg two years ago.

"I was in Belgium with my mum, my stepdad and my little brother. We went into a lamp post at about 80 miles per hour in a freak accident on the motorway," she says matter-of-factly. "All I remember is waking up in intensive care. I was in lots of pain and I couldn't understand what anyone was saying."

She spent the next year in hospital in the UK. "It was hell," she says. "I had a few friends, but it got really depressing to see them. Then they all abandoned me when the novelty of coming to see someone in hospital wore off. "I can understand it. They had their boyfriends and things to do." It is a reply very few adults would feel able to give, and a sign of Gemma's maturity.

After two years of operations, doctors told Gemma the bones would not heal. She got in touch with disability campaigner Heather Mills, who has had a leg amputated. She was a great help to Gemma, who eventually decided to have her leg amputated at the thigh.

"I just said to get rid of it," she says. "At first all I could imagine were wooden peg legs, but I knew if I kept my leg it would be shorter than the other one, scarred and painful, and would always cause me trouble. "I thought 'what's the point of battling with this when I can have something that can be replaced?"

Gemma is remarkably unemotional when talking about her experiences, and seems surprised when I ask how she was able to get back into a car, let alone race at high speeds, after the crash. "I have never been scared of cars," she says, "but if the driver is crap then I will want to drive myself. I had never been to the track that I first raced at before, and I had no brakes on the car. I went straight into a wall, but I have never felt scared."

She had been interested in rally driving years before the accident, after her dad built her a go-kart, and she always enjoyed watching races. She later joined a rally club and got involved in servicing the cars.

She was able to drive at 16 because she was on the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, and when her dad saw her skill at driving her Motability car, he bought her first race car, a Mazda 323.

Gemma now competes against men of all ages. She won six trophies in her first year of racing, came third in her first championship and hopes to compete in three more next year.

You might think she races to prove a point, but her obvious love of cars quickly dispels that suspicion. Ask about her race car and she launches into mechanical descriptions: "It's a super saloon Nissan Micra with a Vauxhall two-litre 16-valve engine, an adaptive clutch system and rear wheel drive so you can get the back end out a bit more."

She is training to be a mechanic, and has had two weeks' work experience with Pro Drive, which prepares all the world rally Subaru Imprezas. She hopes the placement will lead to a job.

She is frighteningly positive about the effect the amputation has had on her life. "I can't wear short skirts now and I used to," she says. "All the boys look at girls with short skirts, and I don't want them to see me as different."

Then, before she sounds upset at the constraints on her life, she adds: "I just wear lots of trousers - but I have nice trousers."

Gemma was recently chosen as a judge for the Queen Elizabeth Foundation's EASE awards, which recognise companies that make a positive effort to provide easy access, service and employment for disabled people.

She was delighted to be asked to help with the awards, her first foray into the world of campaigning. "The awards are great because they raise awareness of disability issues and make organisations work harder on access."

It is a mark of how far Gemma has come in the last few years. "Four years ago I was in agony and then I got rid of my leg, but it has made no difference to me," she says. "I love what I do and I love being myself. It's a good life."

• The EASE awards winners will be announced on 18 October.
  
  
• To sponsor Gemma's racing, tel: 020 8715 7005.
  

Posted: 26.06.2001

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