Emma fell 14,000ft in a skydiving accident. She says it's the best thing that happened to her.

Emma Carey's life changed irrevocably 12 years ago after she sustained an incomplete spinal cord injury when her parachute failed to open during a skydive.

Since the accident, she has catalogued her recovery and many aspects of her life to her loyal Instagram audience of over 210,000 followers. And now, she has achieved a life dream of hers: completing the New York Marathon.

Emma shared the news on Instagram, posting a video of herself walking every five kilometres of the marathon, before making the final stretch in tears of happiness.

She finished the 42-kilometre journey in just under nine hours.

"When a dream becomes a reality," she wrote.

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A post shared by EMMA CAREY (@em_carey)

Back in September, Emma announced her plans to join the marathon to "walk for those who can't".

"I'm about to do possibly the craziest thing I've ever done," she said on Instagram at the time.

"Let me take you back. When I was 20, I had a skydiving accident, became a paraplegic, and was told I would never walk again."

Emma said that when she was paralysed in hospital, there was "one physical goal" that stood out to her.

"It was a dream I've had for as long as I can remember, even well before my injury. And it was the secret goal I always kept in the back of my head if I was ever lucky enough to get better, to run a marathon."

Over the next few years, Emma started to get better, and suddenly her goal didn't seem so unattainable.

"Little by little, my legs started regaining function and eventually I was walking. My secret dream seemed like it was within reach."

But then, her "healing plateaued" and she started to lose hope.

Emma had a skydiving accident when she was 20. Image: Instagram/@em_carey

"Even though I was incredibly grateful for what I had, my legs didn't heal completely, and they're still partially paralysed even to this day."

In rehab, Emma tried again and again to run, but her legs just couldn't do it.

"Eventually, I gave up on my dream. Not because I was disheartened, but because what was the point in running a marathon if you couldn't run?"

Putting her energy into walking, hiking, exploring, travelling, and adventuring, Emma said she "took [her] legs everywhere [she] possibly could".

That's when she realised... she didn't need to run a marathon: she could walk it.

"The dream that I'd always had wasn't out of reach. It just didn't look the same way that I once thought it would. But honestly, what does?" she wrote.

So, she signed up for the New York marathon, with a plan to raise funds for the Perry Cross Foundation: an organisation which works towards a cure for spinal cord injuries.

"I decided I don't want to do this marathon just for me. I want to do it for all of those people who haven't been as lucky as I have. I want to walk for those who can't."

The 32-year-old ended the post: "I have never walked this far in my entire life, and honestly, I don't know if it's physically possible for me to do it, but I'm going to try my hardest."

Now, just two months later, Emma has achieved her lifelong dream, and surpassed her goal of $100,000 donations by over $10,000.

After being told she'd never walk again, Emma completed a marathon. Image: Instagram/@em_carey

12 years ago, walking a marathon is a milestone that was almost taken from Emma for good.

On June 9, 2013, Emma was just a normal 20-year-old woman embarking on a European adventure.

She still finds it strange just how normal she felt that day; she’d always assumed there would be a feeling or a sensation, something in the mind or gut that would ping before a life-altering event.

But as she climbed aboard the skydiving helicopter in the Swiss alps, five days into her European backpacking holiday, the buzz in her stomach was familiar – excitement.

"I’d been looking forward to it for so long, I’m such an adrenaline junkie," the now 32-year-old told Mamamia in 2018. "And then we jumped out, and it was just the most incredible feeling ever."

The free-fall from 14,000ft lasted seconds, maybe less than a minute, before the instructor released their parachute. They slowed a little, but even as a novice Emma could tell it was not enough – the tangled parachute hadn’t opened fully.

By then the instructor had stopped talking to her, and Emma’s concerned questions hung in the air as they rushed closer and closer toward the ground.

"It’s so weird, because it would have happened really fast, but it was almost like time wasn’t real in that situation. I had so much time to think about everything," she said. "I remember feeling absolutely certain that we were about to die. The ground was coming so fast. You know, no one is going to survive something like that."

Watch: Emma Carey, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky. Post continues after video.

Emma landed on her stomach, fully conscious. Her instructor, though alive, lay limp and heavy, still strapped to her back.

"I tried to roll him off me so I could go and get help. And that’s when I realised I couldn’t move my legs, I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t even wriggle my toes at all. And that was terrifying," Emma said. "I was just so confused. I was doing the same movement I had been doing my whole life. For it all of a sudden to not work is just the most bizarre feeling.

"I knew nothing about spinal cord injuries and – even though I don’t feel this way now – at the time I thought, 'If I’m in a wheelchair, no way do I want to live.' I didn’t want to go through that. I wasn’t an emotionally strong person back then, so I didn’t think I’d be able to cope with that at all."

Emma’s friend and travel companion, Jemma, landed safely shortly after with her instructor. "She said she could hear me screaming out to her, 'I can’t move my legs! Help me!'"

Jemma recounted her thoughts in a post on Emma’s Instagram page: "Just tell her it’s just shock and that she’s got to stay calm. Wipe the blood off her face and tell her that she hasn’t actually lost any teeth. She’s crying. Jemma, hold it together. You have to. Her instructor’s not moving, but I can’t even look at him. Emma is all I can think about. Just keep stroking her hair and tell her it’ll be okay. It’ll all be okay. It has to be."

As well as multiple broken bones, Emma sustained what’s known as an incomplete spinal cord injury, meaning only a limited number of signals are able to pass between her body and brain. Her legs were paralysed, her bladder and bowel control affected.

She was a paraplegic, doctors said, and would likely use a wheelchair for life.

"I didn’t really believe that I would never walk again – I’m not sure why. It just didn’t sit right in my mind. When they told me I’d have to use catheters for my whole life I thought, 'Yep.' I believed all that, I was OK with that. But when it came to walking, I just had a feeling."

Emma's rehabilitation will be lifelong. Image: Supplied.

Founded, it turned out.

She can now walk unaided. It took a month of treatment in Switzerland, another three in Sydney, and years of surgery, physio and rehabilitation to get there.

She still can't feel parts of her legs and her calf muscles don't function, meaning she can't run properly, jump or stand on her toes. But she considers herself incredibly fortunate.

"It's a lot to take in. I sometimes feel too lucky. I have so many friends in the same situation in wheelchairs, and they try just as hard as I do," she said.

In spite of everything the past nine years has held, Emma has no regrets.

"I actually feel better for it. I genuinely think it's the best thing that could have happened to me at that time. I don't really know why, but I feel like I needed a big wake-up call so that I could really enjoy life, that I could see it for the gift that it is," she said.

"Prior to the accident, I was never really excited about life, I wasn't happy to wake up each day, I didn't love life as much as I do now.

"I remember thinking as we were falling just how much I really want to live. I always say, it really sucks that it took me nearly dying to realise how much I wanted to live. I think that's why I talk about it so much, so that no one else has to go through such a huge wake up call to realise that. "

This post was originally published on April 24, 2018, and has since been updated.

Feature Image: Instagram/@em_carey