Sophie Morgan thinks it is "impossible" for disabled airline passengers to travel without "something going wrong."
Sophie Morgan is heading up the Rights On Flights campaign
The 38-year-old TV presenter - who crashed her car at the age of 18 and was left paralyzed from the waist down - had been trying to take a battery-powered wheelchair attachment on board a flight at Heathrow but was refused and has now teamed up with MP Marion Fellows to front the Rights On Flights campaign.
She told The Daily Mirror newspaper: "It is impossible to fly these days without something going wrong. They refused to let it travel on board the flight. Even though I know that the battery I travel with is the right size, I have got the paperwork and I have checked the regulations and I know my rights, they were just refusing to let me fly with it in the cabin. I sat my ground and I refused to let them bully me. Eventually, the captain came out, and I said 'Show me the piece of paper that tells me that I am wrong about this. I am pretty sure I know my rights by now because I have had to learn my rights!'
"Most people who fly, who are disabled, have to know their rights these days. I was so excited about the trip and I splashed out on business class, it was trip of a lifetime stuff. Then the first part of the trip was spent fighting for my rights. I just wanted to have the time off from campaigning. But that is why I am campaigning for Rights On Flights."
Sophie - who started her TV career just nine months after her accident along with 11 other disabled people on BBC Two expedition series ' Beyond Boundaries' but these days is best known as a regular panellist on ITV1's lunchtime chat show 'Loose Women' - went on to add that she had "no idea" what lay in store for at the time of her accident and thinks her younger self would be "amazed" at her achievements.
She added: "I had no idea what I could do and that's part of the reason why I have done what I've done. Just to prove to myself that there are these amazing things that I can do that I think the younger version of me would have never expected and perhaps what other people might still not expect."