Seven years ago, on the seventh day of the seventh month, Martine Wright?s life was changed forever by a terror bombing.
This week, Wright wore the No. 7 on her jersey when she spiked any doubts that losing her legs would stop her from living.
Representing Britain, Wright competed in the Paralympics Games in the sitting volleyball tournament.
And while the Brits were swept by a more experienced team from Ukraine, the 39-year-old mom wore a gold-medal smile that lit up the gym.
"I will always say I was one of the lucky ones that day," she told The Associated Press earlier this year. "I survived. I don't know how I survived. I've been living my life ever since."
A former marketing manager, Wright was running late when she boarded the London subway on July 7, 2005 just as four of Osama Bin Laden?s followers launched their deadly bomb attacks.
In a flash, Wright would later say, she found herself staring at one of her brand new sneakers skewered on a piece of metal ? along with one of her blown-off feet.
Wright?s life was saved by an off-duty police woman, who wrapped her stumps in a tourniquet. She lost three-fourth of her blood and, at first, her will to carry on.
It was her mom, Wright said later, who set her straight.
?She grabbed my face,? she said. ?At the time it was all scarred and I couldn?t look at myself. And she said, ?Martine, you are still here?.?
Thus began Wright?s slow and often frustrating fight to reclaim her life from the madmen who left her a cripple.
"When you go through something traumatic in your life ... you sometimes lose who you are," she said.
First she had to relearn how to walk, on prosthetic legs. Then she learned to ski, and to fly, and to love. She married and bore a little boy.
?You're thrown in this completely new world,? she said. ?I can live my life now. It's a very gradual process."
But Wright wanted something more, some outlet for her competitive urges. She found it in sitting volleyball, a sport that allows her to compete ferociously ? while sitting on her duff.
Just like standard volleyball, it has six players to a side and three touches are allowed. But in this sport the net is lower ? and the psychic hurdles the players have had to overcome are higher.
Wright?s teamates include a British soldier who lost her legs while fighting in Iraq.
"It's such a negative thing that happened in my life," Wright said. "But I've gained something so positive. It's a miracle in itself."
? With News Wire Services
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
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