After losing nearly 100 pounds, Megan Torio was determined to make her dreams of working as a professional fitness model come true.
Megan’s stunning transformation even landed her a cover of the weight-loss edition of Oxygen Magazine; she also won the Tosca Reno eat-clean diet challenge.
After years of hard work and constant training, Megan was finally living the healthy lifestyle she always dreamed of.
But those dreams were completely shattered on June 2, 2011, when Megan’s abusive boyfriend did something unimaginable.
While they were riding in a truck, travelling about 65 mph, Megan’s boyfriend suddenly pushed her out in a fit of rage.
The horrifying act of violence left Megan with a sliced labia and a broken spine, collarbone, and six ribs.
Not only was Megan unable to have sexual intercourse for more than a year, but being thrown from a moving truck left the young woman completely paralyzed from the chest down.
Although she underwent surgery to repair her sliced labia and insert metal rods into her broken back, Megan assumed that being paralyzed made her unlovable.
Despite the odds against her, however, Megan began working out at the gym as often as she could, which eventually helped her regain sensation in her muscles.
Doctors insisted that Megan would never be able to walk again, but she continued training her hardest to prove them all wrong.
At first, Megan tried standing on her feet for about two minutes at a time; but she soon began taking steps.
In 2011, right in the midst of her recovery, Megan suddenly met Rod.
“I thought no-one would be interested in me,” she said. “I was paraplegic and didn’t feel like a woman.”
Determined to prove that she could take care of herself, Megan made sure she could use her cane before her second date with Rod.
From the day they first met, Rod has been nothing but supportive of Megan’s road to recovery and her harrowing journey to finally walk on her own again.
Since the pair married in 2012, Megan has been hoping to start a family, but she hasn’t given up on her dreams of becoming a fitness model.
“And even though I know it won’t be easy, it’s actually been pure hell through all of this, and wouldn’t even wish it on my worst enemy,” she wrote on Instagram. “I know my dreams will be worth everything! To inspire the world!!!!!!! To be a first partial paraplegic fitness model.”
