A young woman whose wheelchair bungee-jumping video has gone viral says her heart leaps in her chest every time she watches the footage.
And lately, it's been hard to avoid. The YouTube video has nearly half a million views and has been featured on newscasts and morning shows in Canada and around the world.
In the stunning video, paraplegic Christine Rougoor is hoisted up to the railing of a bridge in her wheelchair. She pauses there for a brief moment before she is tossed over the edge, spinning end over end in a terrifying freefall before her bungee cord stretches out, begins to recoil, and she bounces back up.
"Every time I see it, it brings me back to that moment and at that time I just wanted to go, I said 'I want to go next, I want to go next.' And then when I go the first couple seconds it's like being on a roller coaster but then it was smooth, it felt really stable and it was fun," Rougoor told CTV's Canada AM.
The 25-year-old from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. was paralyzed in a motocross accident in 2008, and has no feeling from the chest down. She also broke every bone in her face in the accident.
But the self-professed "adrenaline junkie" said she wasn't about to let her accident keep her from doing the things she loved.
Eventually, she connected with Karim Ladki, founder of 9Lives Adventures, a company that specializes in helping people with disabilities to participate in extreme sports such as skydiving, snowmobiling and bungee jumping.
Rougoor submitted a video to a contest held by 9Lives, explaining why she wanted the chance to go bungee jumping and snowmobiling with the B.C.-based company, and won.
Ladki, who broke his own neck several years ago but experienced a full recovery, said he started the company with the goal of helping people with disabilities live an active and adventurous lifestyle.
"It's currently the only adventure tourism operator in Canada that offers accessible adrenaline tourism for able and disabled adventure seekers," Ladki said.
For Rougoor, a high school teacher who now works with the Rick Hansen Man in Motion Relay and is finishing her master's in education, the experience has helped her reclaim the person she was before her accident.
While that might worry her mom and dad a little, she said it's an important part of moving forward with her life.
"I think a lot of the things I've done since my accident have made my parents think twice about where I go and who I'm meeting with but I think they trust I'm the same person I was before the accident and I'm going to keep doing the things I love."
