'Changed my life' - Burnage dancer paralysed at 13 sets sights on glory at European Championships

A British dancer who was paralysed at 13 years old said sport transformed her life as she sets her sights on a medal at the Para Dance Sport European Championships.

Beth Rogers, 25, will be the sole British representative at the competition in Prague, Czech Republic, which runs from 22 November to 24 November. After an athletics incident left her in a wheelchair, she took up dance in December 2016 and competed for the first time just a month later.

The Manchester-born athlete said: “I was really depressed, and finding dance gave me hope of how I was going to manage life with a disability, but also a massive outlet for those feelings. So it quite literally turned my life around once I had that as a focus and an outlet for everything else.”

Rogers was born with a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition that causes joint problems, and chronic pain. When she was tripped up during athletics, she suffered a spiral fracture on her right leg, which damaged the nerves and led to her developing complex regional pain syndrome.

She said: “My right leg is paralysed, my ankle is fused because the bones were shattered into so many pieces it was difficult to put it all together, and then it healed badly.

“So, it was one of those where you wouldn’t have expected that sort of impact from that injury but here we are.”

Rogers will compete in two categories in Prague: the solo women’s conventional - which is five ballroom and five Latin dances - and the women’s freestyle. And she has high aspirations after a fourth-place finish at the World Cup in September.

The Burnage-born athlete said: “I’m going with expectations of a medal, but because I’m new to the scene it's difficult to say. The dream would be