- [on the accident when she was knocked to the ground and broke her back on May 31, 2011] I heard it snap. I couldn't feel my feet. I wasn't on drugs or even drunk. I thought I was gonna die.
- [on promoting her album with metal rods in her spine] I was in a strange emotional place. I felt I looked like a freak, having lost 2st, and I didn't want to be judged because I was feeling incredibly insecure. I look back and think I can't believe I did it because really I was too ill. I've still got back pain but it's usually manageable. My tour starts this week and I'm so much more confident than I was before.
- [A friend was messing around doing running jumps over a hedge when he accidentally knocked her over - and landed on her spine. It snapped in half, causing two of her vertebrae to break and stick out through her clothes.] I heard a loud snap. There's not really anything that can describe how horrific that kind of trauma is. It's too much to comprehend. I was pretty much dying, yet I can remember everything. [Ren spent seven days in intensive care, fighting for her life.] For some reason, the drugs wouldn't go into my blood system so I felt everything. It keeps coming back to me like a nightmare, I can't believe I have lived through it. [After just six weeks, to her doctors' amazement, she wheelchaired herself into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.] The doctors were saying I wasn't going to be able to walk again. But I was really determined. As soon as I got any chance of independence, I took it. I remember tying my own shoelaces and feeling unbelievably proud.
- I used to have days when I'd petrified of performing. Now I ask myself: what's the worst that can happen? I was reckless before I had my accident and used to go out partying too much. This physically stopped me because I couldn't move. Suddenly I didn't have any control over my life and body anymore. It's made me realise I'm not indestructible. I don't smoke anymore and I don't drink much. I respect my body more now. I think perhaps it was meant to happen and it saved me from something much worse. I'm certainly not the same girl I was a year ago.
- I only discovered my voice when I was singing in the school choir one day. Being tiny, I was as surprised as everyone else that I had such a big voice. I'd be really embarrassed if my mum caught me singing, even though my dad used to sing in pubs.
- I have come a long way since being a shy teenager in Salford wearing chavvy clothes.
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