More than 12 months on Emma, 22, has continued to baffle doctors who told her she would never walk again.

She is now not only out of a wheelchair, but walking without crutches and has reached new levels of physical strength. Her remarkable progress has also gathered Emma a dedicated audience of 40,000 social media followers from around the world who are drawn to her messages of resilience and positive thinking.

On her Instagram account @em_carey Emma can be seen walking, exercising, swimming, holding her beautiful baby niece Layla and enjoying the sun and surf of the Gold Coast, where her family moved last September in order to make a fresh start.

She is physically and emotionally a million miles from the accident, which saw her literally plummet to earth after her parachute and emergency chute become entangled and had choked her instructor unconscious.

The accident is still under investigation, and Emma has been left with life-long injuries which require continuing treatment and therapy.

She cannot feel the backs of her legs and has bladder and bowel complications she is learning to live with.

Rather than focus on her disabilities, Emma has fought to remain positive and grateful. Her fighting spirit has found her fans among many paraplegics and people with disabilities as well as average women grateful for a reality check in the overly-filtered and glossy version of reality that is social media.

"At first I didn't want to talk about my accident, and I didn't post anything about how I was feeling or coping. But Canberra is such a small place and most people had heard about it, so I grew more comfortable with talking about it openly."

Her Instagram account, which predated her skydiving disaster, gradually became a place she could post small triumphs – standing, walking, spending time with her friends, laughing, and slowly exercising her way back to health.

"I decided that while I may never be able to use all my muscles, the ones that I can use I can strengthen and improve."

A picture she posted earlier in the year of her doing a push-up with her little shadow Layla by her side was reposted by fitness guru Kayla Itsines – whose personal following is now nudging 3.5 million.

The picture received 150,000 likes and a range of comments.

"It has been amazing receiving such positive comments from people all over the world. I am pretty shy but I am really drawn to the idea of motivational speaking, because I know emotionally where I was two years ago, and how much I have improved and how much I have to live for now."

In recent months, Emma has compiled several YouTube videos on a range of issues, including the facts of her accident, and her emotional state in its aftermath.

"It was hard to do, and I wanted to be completely honest and open about it."

Her belief she was going to die in the freefall to earth, her terror at landing face-first on the ground with her instructor unconscious on her back, and her realisation she could not feel anything below her waist are all difficult for her to describe.

Emma is also clear that her recovery is something not everyone can aspire to.

"I know how incredibly lucky I am that I started to get feeling back in my legs. Not everyone does. I get emails from paraplegics wanting to know how they can get out of their wheelchairs. I know I am so lucky, and not everyone will be able to recover like I did and I have to be honest about that."

There are other days when exhaustion sets in, the long slog of physical therapy takes its toll and Emma deeply regrets jumping out of the plane. On those days she tries to find small joys in her niece or listening to the waves at the beach. And she often turns to humour.

One of her Instagram posts says "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you".