ARMED with her swimming costume and dangly earrings, Rayven Hennecy was ready to soak up the last of the August sun at a pool party with her friend Lisa.
The 31-year-old had largely given up hope on finding love but still slipped a glamorous blue cocktail dress over her cozzie just in case Mr. Right happened to be at the gathering.
She didn’t know anyone there apart from Lisa, but jumped at the opportunity to let her hair down after a stressful week at her oncology job, treating children with cancer.
But what Rayven didn’t know was that this unassuming night in 2021 was going to change the course of her life forever - and not because she’d meet the man of her dreams.
Once the clock struck midnight at the small summer gathering, the party collectively decided to get into the swimming pool.
Rayven dived in first.
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She didn’t realise that the pool was only 3ft shallow.
“Suddenly, I felt my neck snap,” she recalls. “I was face down in the water, unable to move my body.
“I desperately tried to roll over so I didn’t drown.
“I prayed people would come and flip me over, and finally they did.
“Panicking, I said, ‘call me an ambulance’, but everyone was telling me to give it time.”
Rayven’s friends carried her out of the water and laid her onto a sofa inside with a pillow under her head.
She continued to beg for an ambulance until the call was eventually made by someone who realised she might have seriously hurt herself.
What Rayven and the rest of the party didn’t realise was that she had snapped her neck and was now paralysed from the chest down.
She had suffered an intense spinal cord injury (SCI), and was experiencing a total loss of sensation and muscle function in her body.
“In the blink of an eye my life changed forever,” she tells.
Suddenly, I felt my neck snap. I was face down in the water, unable to move my body. I desperately tried to roll over so I didn’t drown
Rayven Hennecy
“Doctors were mortified that my body, especially my head, had been lifted.
“It caused worse damage."
Rayven was rushed into surgery once she had been examined by docs and put into an induced coma after.
Days later, she woke up and began rehab right away.
WHAT IS A SPINAL CORD INJURY?
A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function, says the NHS.
Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cord below the level of the injury.
Depending on the location and severity of damage, the symptoms vary, from numbness to paralysis to incontinence.
Long term outcomes also range widely, from full recovery to permanent tetraplegia (also called quadriplegia) or paraplegia.
Rayven took to Instagram in the wake of her accident to urge her friends and family to “not take life for granted”, and wrote: “I should not be alive.”
She had to learn how to use her fingers, hands and eventually arms again through intense rehabilitation sessions at the hospital in Lakeland, Florida.
“It was like being born again,” she says. “I was paralysed from my breasts downward and worked damn hard to move my fingers and arms again."
Rayven had been single throughout her Twenties and was always “wondering if she’d ever find love and if it'd happen for her”.
After her accident, these feelings only intensified.
As she was adapting to life as a paraplegic, she moved back home with her parents and decided to bite the bullet with online dating.
She made a profile on a popular app but didn't meet anyone.
Then, months later in January 2022, she was out for dinner with her parents when a stranger struck up a conversation.
Life in a wheelchair as a paraplegic is extremely tough. But I'm staying positive and I can't wait for this Valentine's Day with my Scott. I truly found love during the darkest time
Rayven Hennecy
Scott, 37, had noticed her in a wheelchair and wanted to ask her on a data.
Rayven was shocked, but reluctantly agreed.
Within a matter of months, the pair were a couple.
"Scott treated me like anyone else,” Rayven says. “He made me feel special."
Valentine's Day in February 2022 was the turning point for their relationship.
Rayven knew she'd found the one when Scott surprised her with an orchid and a bottle of red wine, and also gifted her mum a bottle too.
"That Valentine's Day I realised I'd found something special,” she says.
"I'd worried it could never work romantically due to my disability but he didn't care."
"He became my rock from that day on, going to every doctor’s appointment, surgery and rehab session with me," Rayven adds.
The pair, who are both adventurers at heart, love to go on holiday together.
Scott is happy to wheel Rayven around on adventures like skiing and nature trails, and they don't let her paralysis hold them back.
“Life in a wheelchair as a paraplegic is extremely tough,” she says.
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"But I'm staying positive and I can't wait for this Valentine's Day with my Scott.
"I truly found love during the darkest time."