Before her accident, Jessica was an active teenager who played basketball and softball, and she dreamed of a profession where she could help people or animals, a psychologist or veterinarian.

One summer, while working for a small painting company, Jessica fainted and fell off a ladder, leaving her with quadriplegia. In rehab, she dealt with the frustrations of living in a wheelchair, but soon realized that people in wheelchairs could do all the same things as anyone else, just in a different way.

Jessica graduated from Simon Fraser University with an English degree and creative writing certificate in 2015. In 2019, she completed certification in Baking and Pastry Arts at Vancouver Community College and in October of that year, started her own custom dessert business, “The Stubborn Baker”. Jessica also plays wheelchair rugby for the BC Wheelchair Rugby Team, and got engaged to her boyfriend, Juan, in the summer of 2019.