SAMANTHA Kinghorn isn’t afraid to speak her mind. It is a quality the triple European champion wheelchair racer also respects in others, not least the youngsters she meets on school visits across Scotland to talk about her athletics career.

“Kids always come up with great questions and just say exactly what they are thinking,” she says. “I’ve been asked: ‘Do you sleep in your chair?’ and ‘Have you any friends?’. I like that because I don’t think children get taught enough about disability. It’s good to be able to tell them it’s OK to be curious.”

Kinghorn was 14 when she was crushed while helping her father clear snow on the family farm near the Berwickshire village of Gordon. Her back was broken and she was left paralysed from the waist down. The teenager spent six months at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, formerly the Southern General, in Glasgow after being told she would never walk again.

A former gymnast, Kinghorn went to watch the Inter Spinal Unit Games at Stoke Mandeville in 2011 and it was there she was inspired to pursue a career in athletics. Kinghorn finished second in her debut at the 2012 London Mini Marathon and has since achieved an impressive list of accolades: she holds seven Scottish records in the T53 class.

“After the accident I accepted there was nothing I could do about it,” she says. “I never cried or was that upset. I just got on with things straight away. I think that is down to the way I was brought up. I always try to see the positive in everything that happens.”

With her sunny disposition and against-the-odds rise to success, Kinghorn has the kind of wholesome appeal that makes grannies want to pinch her cheek and, apparently, send her pocket money in the post.

“I get lovely letters from old ladies who give me £1 or £10 and say how fantastic I am,” she says. “That is always really nice and spurs me on to do well. I have been to the bank and put £1 in before because I have a separate account for my racing money. I want to make sure I’m using it for my athletics and not just frittering it away.”

Given all that Kinghorn has experienced in her life and athletics career, it’s easy to forget she is still only 19. She made her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow last summer, finishing fifth in the final of the T54 1500m. Three weeks later, Kinghorn took a sweep of gold medals in the T53 100m, 400m and 800m at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea.

Next month will see her compete at her first IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha where she has been selected to represent Great Britain in the T53 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m. It will be a busy schedule with Kinghorn potentially racing eight times in the first five days of the championships.

While she admits to a mixture of trepidation and excitement, Kinghorn – known as Sammi to her friends – is raring to go. “My goal is to try to make the final in all four events,” she says.

Racing in Qatar is not without its challenges, chiefly the searing heat. “It’s going to be around 35C,” Kinghorn says. “I have raced in Dubai in February before but it wasn’t quite as hot. We will use heat chambers the week before to try to get used to it but it will still be a shock to the system. You can struggle to breathe when racing as it’s quite a dry, dusty heat. It means you get tired quicker and there is the risk of dehydration but, hopefully, I’ll get used to it. I will fly out with the team on October 11 to get acclimatised.”

She views her biggest rivals as the Chinese team as well as Angie Ballard, the Commonwealth Games champion and five-time Paralympic medallist, from Australia. In all likelihood, Kinghorn will be the youngest in her events.

“Hopefully, my career will last a long time so it is about getting world-class performance experience at this age,” she says. “It is exciting but also a bit scary and daunting to know I’m probably going to be the youngest.”

Indeed Kinghorn, who is coached by Ian Mirfin of the Red Star Athletics Club in Glasgow, admits that she never imagined in her wildest dreams becoming a three-time European champion at just 18 as she did last year.

“Not at all,” she says. “I was really nervous going to the Europeans as it was so soon after the Commonwealth Games and I was still very tired. It was great to get those results.”

The past year has seen Kinghorn continue to hone her racing technique. “There have been a lot of changes to my gloves and chair so I’m really pleased things are still moving forward,” she says. “I have changed from soft to solid gloves which are plastic and moulded to my hands. I have also changed the steepness of my knees in the racing chair. It has been good fun trying different things.”

She has set a string of personal bests this year of 17.47sec (100m), 30.52sec (200m) and 57.24sec (400m). Kinghorn feels her strength lies over the shorter distances. “I enjoy these races and trying to get off the line as fast as I can,” she says. “I’m perhaps not as clued up on racing the longer distances yet in terms of things like drafting and being a bit more tactical. I find it easier to stay in my lane and power round.

“My strongest event is the 200m but the 200m isn’t going to be in Rio, so I think the 400m will be the main target.”

The 2016 Paralympic Games next September is in her sights. “That would be incredible. I just hope I can make it,” says Kinghorn. “The big thing will be seeing how I cope with the nerves. Competing at the Paralympics is scary but, hopefully, I can make it to the finals and then see what happens.”

It will be the first Paralympics of many she hopes. “I want to win a gold medal one day and aim to be No 1 in the world,” she says. “It would be good to get a world record too. Hopefully, if I keep pushing hard it will happen for me.”

Kinghorn, who has always been a helping hand around the family farm where she lives with her parents Elaine and Neill, admits the intensity of training has seen her cut back. “I train a lot at home but the farm work is getting a bit less as I’m too tired during the day to help out or need to rest up so I can train at night,” she says. “I’m trying to look after myself more now.”

She can be found training on specially-built rollers in the garage, on a quiet strip near the farm or on the track at Tweedbank Sports Complex.

“Sometimes in the evening I go out on the main roads with my dad but even that isn’t drastically busy,” she says. “Everyone knows me so they give me plenty of space.”

On occasion, she does get up to Glasgow to train with Mirfin at the Crownpoint Sports Complex where the athletics track used at Hampden during Glasgow 2014 has found a home. “I had a big smile seeing it again,” she says. “It is good it’s being re-used. Every track has a different feel so I can tell exactly what track it is when I’m on it.”

Kinghorn is sanguine when asked if she visualises how things would have panned out without her accident.

“I do think about what life would be like,” she says. “It’s something my friends and I talk about. I wanted to be a zoologist before my accident so it would have been a completely different path. Whether or not I would have actually done that I don’t know. What I do know is that this has broadened my options in life. I’ve got to travel and meet all of these amazing people. It has opened up so many opportunities.”

You can follow Samantha Kinghorn on Twitter at @Sam_Kinghorn