The over-sized post-it notes decorating the garage walls adjoining Samantha Kinghorn’s home serve as aide memoires in moments of temporal amnesia. A list of personal bests from the previous summer, there as reminders of benchmarks which must be surpassed. Photos emblazoned as souvenirs of endeavours past. And a bank of motivational slogans selected to reinforce her competitive creed.

One mantra, the 19-year-old says, stands apart. “‘As long as you never give up, you’ll never fail’. My biggest fear in life is letting people down. So my mum gave me that one.”

With the IPC world athletics championships starting in Doha today, Kinghorn – three times a European champion last season in wheelchair racing’s T52 category – has given her mother little cause for deflation. But a journey which most expect will lead to a podium at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio has nevertheless doubled as a familial odyssey.

It was almost five winters ago that her spine was crushed by falling snow after leaping onto a forklift driven by her father Neil at their house in Berwickshire. Cruel fate, a freak accident but parental responsibilities weighed heavily. Self-forgiveness, she admits, has been hard for him to find. Yet, from despair has come opportunity, from disability a redemptive quest for all.

“It’s definitely helped him,” she affirms. “He loves coming to watch me and it’s been good for him to see me achieving things. And that I’m enjoying my life as well and really loving it. If he’s feeling even a bit depressed, he can come and watch me race with my Mum and it’s just good fun. All this has allowed them to travel to places in the world they’ve never travelled to before.”

Both have flown to Qatar where Kinghorn has joined fellow Scots Libby Clegg, Maria Lyle and Jo Butterfield in an ambitious British squad. Although Kinghorn, who trains with Glasgow’s Red Star club, already has the qualifying times for Brazil, the championships – where she competes initially in the 200 metres before embarking on the 100, 400 and 800m – are a rare chance to test herself against her peers. “So it is kind of a test run to see how I cope with the pressure going into next year.”

There have been few bumps in the road so far. “I found it quite natural to get into but now is where it gets tougher but I’m at the level where you need hard work on top of that natural ability,” she acknowledges. “It makes it easier knowing I can make the times. I still have to achieve them two or three more times next year and show I’m getting better. There’s work to do but knowing I’ve got the Paralympic standards makes me more confident of being selected.”

Heat approaching 40C will be a hindrance despite the use of a heat chamber for simulation in advance. The schedule will come thick and fast. “I have no real idea how I’ll cope with it. But I am used to doing five races in one day and adjusting to the different distances so I’ll give it a go.”