Ryan Shay has always been an athlete but he’s had to adjust some of his goals since a car accident last year changed his life forever.

Shay was travelling near Yarmouth, N.S. 14 months ago when he took a left-hand turn too fast. The collision left him a quadriplegic.

“I think I was just going a little too fast and I decided to take a left and the car must have caught a little bit of air and it rolled,” explains Shay.

“I was screaming that I couldn’t feel my legs so I assume I knew something was wrong.”

The 18-year-old Triple A Hockey defenceman lost the use of his legs, but not his determination or humour.

In a matter of months, Shay went from surgeries and hospital beds to impressing doctors in rehab.

Now he spends six days a week training, either at the gym or on a track, where he races using a specialized racing wheelchair.

“If you’re good at something you like it, so, you know, I seemed like I was alright at it so I figured I might as well see how far I could take it,” says Shay.

But being good at the sport isn’t enough for Shay. He wants to be one of the best, if not the best, in the world. He has set his sights on competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games.

“He’s going to be very successful in wheelchair racing because it is the attitude, it’s the work ethic and that’s what carries forward,” says Shay’s coach, Ueli Albert.

Shay is getting stronger everyday but he needs a little help in achieving his goals. He currently uses a used racing wheelchair on the track but it’s too big for him.

He hopes to raise $5,000 so he can buy a new racing wheelchair that will help him get to Rio in 2016. He also hopes his determination and spirit will help inspire others.

“In rehab I’d look at posters and it would show a wheelchair athlete in a basketball chair with an inspirational quote and I want to be on those posters,” says Shay.

“I want to show people like, if I can do it, if I have it in me, it’s a waste to not do it. I feel obligated to do it.”

Shay says he would want his poster to read ‘you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.’

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl